palo alto neighborhoods 2011
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The Palo Alto Weekly's Neighborhoods 2011 special publication.TRANSCRIPT
VENTURA GREENMEADOW GREEN ACRES
Our NeighbOrhOOds
Profiles, maPs and vital facts of featured neighborhoods in the community
Pa loA l toOn l ine .com
p a l o a l t o
p a l o a l t o w e e k l y • 2 0 1 1 e d i t i o n
Transactions Last 12 Months
This information is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed
1001 Hamilton Avenue Palo Alto10281 Phar Lap Drive Cupertino1070 Greenwood Ave Palo Alto1180 Judson Dr Mountain View1204 Sharon Park Dr #83 Menlo Park12100 Old Snakey Rd Los Altos Hills12271 Hilltop Drive Los Altos Hills12450 Curry Ct Saratoga141 Southhampton Ln, #C Santa Cruz14140 Donelson Place Los Altos Hills14160 Donelson Place Los Altos Hills15321 Robin Anne Lane Monte Sereno154 Flynn Ave Mountain View15930 Rose Avenue Los Gatos175 Elliot Ave Menlo Park179 Owens Court Mountain View1863 Channing Ave Palo Alto19664 Charters Ave Saratoga1983 San Luis Ave #33 Mountain View215 Hanna Way Menlo Park2333 Louis Rd Palo Alto26050 Leonard Drive Saratoga26541 Purissima Road Los Altos Hills27361 Moody Road Los Altos Hills2814 South Court Palo Alto310 Rutherford Drive Redwood City3141 Louis Rd Palo Alto317 Princeton Road Menlo Park321 Alexander Ave Redwood City3357 Saint Michael Court Palo Alto3439 Woodstock Lane Mountain View3810 May Court Palo Alto505 Cypress Point Dr #292 Mountain View505 Cypress Point Dr #293 Mountain View507 Buena Vista Ave Redwood City508 Pope St Menlo Park5590 Greenridge Rd Castro Valley603 Glen Alto Drive Los Altos732 Flannery Street Santa Clara740 Seale Ave Palo Alto875 Riverside Drive Los Altos915 Maywood Ct Los Altos940 Lundy Lane Los Altos
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Transactions Last 12 Months
This information is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed
1001 Hamilton Avenue Palo Alto10281 Phar Lap Drive Cupertino1070 Greenwood Ave Palo Alto1180 Judson Dr Mountain View1204 Sharon Park Dr #83 Menlo Park12100 Old Snakey Rd Los Altos Hills12271 Hilltop Drive Los Altos Hills12450 Curry Ct Saratoga141 Southhampton Ln, #C Santa Cruz14140 Donelson Place Los Altos Hills14160 Donelson Place Los Altos Hills15321 Robin Anne Lane Monte Sereno154 Flynn Ave Mountain View15930 Rose Avenue Los Gatos175 Elliot Ave Menlo Park179 Owens Court Mountain View1863 Channing Ave Palo Alto19664 Charters Ave Saratoga1983 San Luis Ave #33 Mountain View215 Hanna Way Menlo Park2333 Louis Rd Palo Alto26050 Leonard Drive Saratoga26541 Purissima Road Los Altos Hills27361 Moody Road Los Altos Hills2814 South Court Palo Alto310 Rutherford Drive Redwood City3141 Louis Rd Palo Alto317 Princeton Road Menlo Park321 Alexander Ave Redwood City3357 Saint Michael Court Palo Alto3439 Woodstock Lane Mountain View3810 May Court Palo Alto505 Cypress Point Dr #292 Mountain View505 Cypress Point Dr #293 Mountain View507 Buena Vista Ave Redwood City508 Pope St Menlo Park5590 Greenridge Rd Castro Valley603 Glen Alto Drive Los Altos732 Flannery Street Santa Clara740 Seale Ave Palo Alto875 Riverside Drive Los Altos915 Maywood Ct Los Altos940 Lundy Lane Los Altos
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phone 650 207 2100email [email protected] www.brendanleary.com
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Named for an ancient redwood tree that was a living landmark for late-1700s Spanish explorers, Palo Alto
today is a diverse community, a mixture of high-tech and locally owned companies and more than 26,000 homes.
Since incorporation in 1894, Palo Alto has expanded to encompass the area stretching from San Francisquito Creek to the north to San Antonio Road to the south, from the San Francisco Bay to the Skyline Ridge. It is home to nearly 60,000 residents but during weekdays the population swells to nearly 140,000 with the daily flow and ebb of commuters.
Over time, the demographics of Palo Alto have changed dramatically. What once was a homogeneous, mostly blue-collar community, with an enclave of Stanford University professors, has become a diverse, mostly well-to-do, well-educated, but aging, population.
Despite a median household income of $166,063 in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars, many are challenged to keep up with the
median home price – $1,375,000 (from December 2009 through November 2010).
But people continue to flock to Palo Alto, taking pride in its environmental consciousness, city-owned utilities, support of social services and some firsts, including opening a public Children’s Library in 1940 and becoming the first U.S. city to have an Internet home page in 1994.
In addition to the neighborhoods included here, you can view expanded profiles at www.paloaltoonline.com/neighborhoods/.
This publication, like Palo Alto itself, is ever-evolving. If we’ve missed your neighborhood (either here or online), or if you have additional tidbits about your neighborhood you’d like to share with the Weekly, please let us know.
Carol Blitzer, [email protected]
Additional copies of Palo Alto Neighborhoods, as well as companion publications — Almanac Neighborhoods and Mountain View/Los Altos Neighborhoods — are available at the Weekly for $5 each. All three publications are available online at www.paloaltoonline.com/neighborhoods/.
Copyright @2011 by Embarcadero Media. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited.
On the Cover: Erica Cohen of Rain or Shine Pet Services walks Weimaraners Malaka and Ambu in Palo Alto’s Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood in early November. Photo by Veronica Weber. Photos of Ventura and Green Acres by Veronica Weber; Greenmeadow by Colleen Cummins.
publisher: William S. JohnsonEditor: Carol Blitzerart director: Scott PetersonResearchers: Carol Blitzer, Karla Kane, Sarah Schilling, Sarah Trauben, Georgia Wells
Vice president Sales and Marketing: Walter KupiecSales representatives: Connie Jo Cotton, Neal Fine, Rosemary LewkowitzHome-sales data: Courtesy of J. Robert Taylor, Taylor Properties
Sta
ff
Adobe Meadow/Meadow Park 36Barron Park ............................. 38Adobe Meadow/Meadow Park ...36Barron Park ............................. 38Charleston Gardens ................ 41Charleston Meadows .............. 40College Terrace ...................... 30Community Center .................. 20Crescent Park .......................... 10Downtown North ...................... 8Duveneck/St. Francis ............... 18Esther Clark Park ..................... 49Evergreen Park ........................ 28Fairmeadow ............................ 38Greater Miranda ..................... 48Green Acres ............................ 48Greendell/Walnut Grove ......... 42The Greenhouse ...................... 41Greenmeadow ........................ 42 Leland Manor/Embarcadero Oaks/Garland Drive .......................... 22Midtown ................................. 32Monroe Park .......................... 44Old Palo Alto .......................... 24Palo Alto Hills ........................ 49Palo Alto Orchards ................. 46Palo Verde .............................. 36Professorville .......................... 14Southgate ............................... 26South of Midtown ................... 34St. Claire Gardens ................... 34Triple El ................................... 28University South ...................... 12Ventura ................................... 40
Index
450 Cambridge Ave.Palo Alto, CA 94306
650-223-6500 www.PaloAltoOnline.com
Veronica Weber Veronica Weber Galen Stolee
Our neIghbOrhOOdsPALO ALTO
StanfordShopping
Center
StanfordShopping
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RavenswoodShopping
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RavenswoodShopping
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StanfordUniversity
MedicalCenter
StanfordUniversity
MedicalCenter Stanford
UniversityStanford
University
San AntonioShopping
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San AntonioShopping
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DowntownPalo Alto
DowntownPalo Alto
Palo AltoPalo Alto
EastPalo Alto
EastPalo Alto
MountainView
MountainViewLos AltosLos Altos
Menlo ParkMenlo Park
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1. Downtown North2. Crescent Park3. University South4. Professorville5. Community Center6. Duveneck/St. Francis7. Triple El8. Embarcadero Oaks9. Leland Manor10. Garland11. Old Palo Alto12. Southgate13. Evergreen Park14. College Terrace15. Ventura16. Midtown17. Palo Verde18. St. Claire Gardens
19. South of Midtown20. Adobe Meadow/ Meadow Park21. Charleston Gardens22. The Greenhouse23. Greendell24. Greenmeadow25. Walnut Grove26. Fairmeadow27. Charleston Meadows28. Monroe Park29. Palo Alto Orchards30. Barron Park31. Green Acres32. Greater Miranda33. Esther Clark Park34. Palo Alto Hills
PALO ALTO NEIGHBORHOODS
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dOwntOwn nOrthDowntown North, Palo Alto’s
northernmost neighborhood, is also one of its oldest. Soon after Palo Alto began as an offshoot of Stanford University in the 1890s, the town was dry, and a trolley ran up University Avenue.
Much has changed since the post-World War II downtown developed into a Norman Rockwell-esque landscape of creameries, movie houses and five-and-dimes. Instead of Woolworth’s, today you can find an Apple store, an icon of Silicon Valley, along a bustling main street.
Downtown North is bounded by the meandering San Francisquito Creek on the north, University Avenue on the south and tucked between Alma Street and Middlefield Road.
By the end of the 1920s the neighborhood was built out, according to Palo Alto Historian Steven Staiger. Vestiges of the old blue-collar populace still remain in the smaller properties and houses designed like cottages or bungalows. Houses are built closer to the sidewalks, porches sit out front, the driveways off to the side — encouraging neighborly interaction. A few larger
rebuilt houses and apartment complexes represent the current need and development for the growing town.
Jeanese Snyder, whose children will be the family’s fifth generation to grow up in her Downtown North house, has seen the town shift from small town to urban center. Gone is the “slower-pace” that Snyder refers to when people used to fish and inner tube down San Francisquito Creek or when her grandmother actually used to hose down the dirt road outside their house.
“Growing-up (in the ’70s) we thought we lived in the most boring town there was because University Avenue closed up. I mean we road our bikes downtown at night because nothing was open,” she said.
The largest sore spot for Downtown North is its parking and traffic situation, Staiger said. Commuters drive through Downtown North to get to Stanford or use its residential areas for parking while working around University Avenue. And the closer a resident lives to University Avenue, the bigger traffic and parking hassles are.
The city has implemented a combination of traffic-slowing techniques such as no-turn signs and traffic circles, which provide some relief to the ongoing situation, though parking still remains troublesome.
But the inconveniences are easily offset by Downtown North’s proximity to everything, residents say.
Darel and Elu Chapman and their three young boys live in a house built in the 1910s next to the creek, on Palo Alto Avenue. Elu Chapman said she “wouldn’t trade anything for the convenience.” They moved into their house in 2002 and are part of a shift from older residents to more families and children in the area.
Within walking distance are Stanford events, such as fireworks and public lectures, as well as the annual May Fete Parade and Palo Alto Festival of the Arts on University Avenue, the downtown farmers market and even Sunset Magazine.
“At work ... it’s fast-paced tech, and I come home and it’s almost like a step back into the ’50s or the ’20s and it’s green and it’s older and I know people. It’s quite a contrast actually,” Darel Chapman said.
— Kris Young
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (and neaRBy): Discovery Children’s House — Montessori, 437 Webster St.; Downtown Children’s Center, 555 Waverley St.; First School, 625 Hamilton Ave.fiRe Station: No. 1, 301 Alma St. liBRaRy: Downtown branch, 270 Forest Ave. (temporarily closed for renovations)loCation: between San Francisquito Creek and University Avenue, Alma Street and Middlefield RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Dan Lorimer, 650-322-5566paRkS: Cogswell Plaza, Lytton Avenue between Ramona and Bryant streets; El Camino Park, 100 El Camino Real; El Palo Alto Park, Alma Street at El Camino Real; Hopkins Creekside Park, Palo Alto Avenue from El Camino Real to Middlefield Road; Johnson Park, Everett Avenue and Waverley Street poSt offiCe: Hamilton, 380 Hamilton Ave. pUBliC SCHoolS: Addison Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG: University Avenue, Stanford Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,388,500 ($850,000-$2,200,000)HoMeS Sold: 12 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $675,000 ($442,000-$1,250,000)CondoS Sold: 19
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CresCent PArkWhen Gary Bacon moved to Crescent
Park in 1969, he was charmed by the small-town feel and individuality of the mostly single-story Craftsman bungalows.
Four years later when he needed a larger home, he opted to go just a few blocks.
He still recalls wheeling his piano down Guinda Street while a buddy played boogie woogie and new neighbors cheered.
Relationships were quickly forged over low fences — informal chats that evolved into Labor Day block-party traditions, Halloween costume parties, a wine co-op and backyard movie night with his rear garage as a screen.
Since he moved onto Forest Avenue, the now-retired Los Altos High School teacher has seen plenty of changes, from the raising of rooflines and infill of homes on the deeper lots to the demise of those low between-neighbor fences and skyrocketing prices.
Despite the changes, Bacon is still struck by the congeniality of the neighbors. “I’m not going anywhere. I love it here,” he said.
Tucked between San Francisquito Creek, Newell Road, Channing Avenue and Middlefield Road, Crescent Park has a quiet, secluded feel despite its proximity to downtown Palo Alto and traffic-laden University Avenue. Children play on the
neighborhood’s magnolia-lined sidewalks, and neighbors know they can rely on each other for help, advice and friendship.
But the friendly environment isn’t the only thing that attracts people to Crescent Park. The area’s architectural diversity and age, with Mediterranean, Early Californian and Victorian homes, appeals to many residents looking for a neighborhood with character.
“People come to Crescent Park who are looking for two-story houses, like in the suburbs around the big cities on the East Coast,” said Norm Beamer, president of the Crescent Park Neighborhood Association. “Crescent Park tends to have that kind of architecture: large two-story houses on a traditional, tree-lined street. I think that’s one of the unique things about the neighborhood.”
Steve Staiger, Palo Alto’s historian, notes that Crescent Park was originally part of a 2,200-acre land grant called Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito. In 1864, Dr. William Newell bought the land, where he planted some of the first eucalyptus trees in America.
For decades, the nearby San Francisquito Creek has caused its share of problems. Heavy El Niño rains wreaked millions of dollars of damage when the
creek overflowed in 1998.“You never would have expected a little
creek that is normally dry to flood like that,” Beamer said.
Much of Crescent Park is now in a designated flood zone, which means that mortgaged homes need to have flood insurance and that any major renovations require raising the house above the flood
level. Rather than focusing on the
flood, most residents talk about the friendly atmosphere, elegant homes and fantastic location.
Beth O’Malley first moved to Crescent Park when she fell in love with the architecture of the house and the off-the-beaten-path feel of a house not on a through street. But if it’s the house that brought her, it’s the community that has kept her there for the past 12 years.
“I am surrounded on all sides ... by amazing neighbors, just amazing neighbors,” O’Malley said. “I feel like we’re all here for each other.
“Our kids all cat-sit and dog-sit and house-sit,” O’Malley said. “It’s a great way to start them out with a little responsibility from an early age.”
— Jillian Keenan and Carol Blitzer
FACts CHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Piccolo Preschool, 888 Boyce Ave.fiRe Station: No. 3, 799 Embarcadero RoadliBRaRy: Main Library, 1213 Newell RoadloCation: bounded by San Francisquito Creek, Newell Road, Channing Avenue and Middlefield RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Norman Beamer, 650-327-7071paRkS: Eleanor Pardee Park, 851 Center Drive; Hopkins Creekside Park, along Palo Alto AvenuepoSt offiCeS: Hamilton, 380 Hamiliton Ave.; Main, 2085 E. Bayshore RoadpRiVate SCHoolS: St. Elizabeth Seton School, 1095 Channing Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Duveneck Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG (neaRBy): The Willows Market, 60 Middlefield Road, Menlo ParkMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $2,400,000 ($710,000-$4,830,000)HoMeS Sold: 30 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $735,000CondoS Sold: 1
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unIVersItY sOuthNestled in between Palo Alto’s most
exciting places, Kathryn Verwillow raves about the location of her neighborhood.
“The neighborhood is only three-fourths of a mile from downtown and eight blocks from Stanford,” she said. “It is the perfect location.”
Verwillow, a resident since 2003, said the sense of community is strong in the neighborhood, too. Each year her block on Kingsley Avenue hosts a block party for the whole neighborhood on the first Saturday after school starts. “It is like summer’s last gasp,” she said.
This year the party had a bouncy house for the young children and a 20-foot-tall blue and orange bouncy slide for the older kids.
When the kids were on the slide, squeals of delight poured out in every direction. The kids flew down the slide and bounced onto an inflatable-rubber surface. Verwillow said there was a first-aid kit at the ready.
Two young girls dragged their father toward the coolers when they arrived at the block party; they were in need of juice boxes. Verwillow said the party usually gets up to 200 residents during the potluck, ranging from middle-class to the high reaches of the upper class.
“On this block there was a house sold for $10 million and another sold for a little under $900,000,” she said.
But, location is the main attraction to
this more than 100-year-old community.Eric Nee, a journalist at Stanford, has
lived in University South since 1998. He said he enjoys riding his bike to work everyday and also said the location of the neighborhood is the best aspect.
“It is the most urban of the suburban communities,” he said. “Everything is in walking distance.”
However, the great location of University South has brought some problems with the continued expansion of Palo Alto.
The city designated two-hour parking streets at the edge of the neighborhood to accommodate downtown workers. According to long-time resident Michael Hodos, this influx of cars has created a big parking issue.
“Residents without driveways will go to run an errand and have to park blocks away from their houses,” Hodos said. “I once saw a woman walk a block back and forth several times just to put away her groceries.”
Hodos has lived in the neighborhood since 1978 and said that there used to be ample parking. Now, he said he has to help his neighbor and play “musical cars” to ensure a parking spot is available.
The parking problems spill into the historic district of Professorville — named for the Stanford professors who lived there — which is surrounded by University South. When Stanford opened in 1891,
there was little near the campus. According to Palo Alto Historian Steve Staiger, the city of Palo Alto was formed because Stanford needed a city surrounding it.
“You can’t tell the story of Stanford without talking about Palo Alto,” Staiger said.
The area that is now called University South was the original Palo Alto because it was the closest walking distance to the university, according to Staiger.
Because of this, University South has homes that are more than 100 years old. But since the neighborhood lies outside the historic borders of Professorville, renovations on homes can be done with much less red tape to cut through.
Staiger said he hopes to continue University South’s tradition of history by opening the Palo Alto Historical Museum within the neighborhood’s boundaries. The new museum will be housed in the Roth Building on Homer Avenue, which used to house Palo Alto’s original clinic.
Construction could start on the museum as early as spring of 2011, if the Palo Alto Historical Association raises the adequate funds, Staiger said.
— Ryan Deto
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Addison Kids’ Club, 650 Addison Ave.; Downtown Child Care Center – CCLC, 848 Ramona St.; First School, 625 Hamilton Ave.; The Learning Center, 459 Kingsley Ave. fiRe Station: No. 1, 301 Alma St. liBRaRy: Downtown branch, 270 Forest Ave. (temporarily closed for renovations)loCation: bounded by Homer Avenue, Alma Street, Embarcadero and Middlefield roadsneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Elaine Meyer, 650-325-8057paRkS: Scott Park, Scott Street and Channing Avenue; Palo Alto Heritage Park, Homer Avenue and Waverley StreetpoSt offiCe: Hamilton, 380 Hamilton Ave. pUBliC SCHoolS: Addison Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG: University Avenue, Town & Country VillageMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,385,500 ($775,000-$4,200,000)HoMeS Sold: 15 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $899,000 ($560,000-$4,125,000) CondoS Sold: 19
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PrOFessOrVIlleProfessorville, which survived the 1906
earthquake as well as a threat to develop a huge hospital in the 1970s, is registered as a national Historic District, and has retained a distinctly residential feel despite its proximity to downtown.
“Over the years, this area’s become really gentrified,” according to Sandy Peters, who’s lived there more than 35 years.
Bounded by Kingsley and Addison avenues from Cowper to Ramona streets, the neighborhood features a variety of traditional styles of architecture, including Craftsman, Shingle and Colonial Revival.
Residents share a common commitment to maintaining the overall look of the neighborhood as well as the upkeep of individual historic homes, Peters said. The Palo Alto Historical Review Board (HRB) encourages this perspective, and treats Professorville’s history as a point of pride.
The neighborhood’s front doors are littered with small bronze ovals, presented by Palo Alto Stanford (PAST) Heritage to homes that reach their centennial anniversary.
The historic status of the area and certain individual houses can be the source of extra frustration for residents looking to renovate the exteriors of their homes or build additions, Peters said.
“I guess there are more hurdles you have to deal with,” she said. These potentially include petitioning the Palo Alto Historic Review Board to approve construction plans.
But many residents have fought to maintain this high standard for neighborhood projects, fearing the encroachment of downtown office spaces and the parking dilemmas they have already caused.
Because many houses in Professorville were not originally built with garages, their owners have largely resorted to street-side parking.
At the same time, the absence of a time limit on these streets has attracted many who work downtown, causing Ramona and Bryant to be choked with cars parked bumper-to-bumper from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“It’s getting to be a very serious problem. It’s encroached on a huge part of Professorville,” Peters said. “If you pull away in the morning to do errands, you can just forget about parking when you get back.”
Living so close to University still has its benefits, Peters said.
“I can walk to everything, and I’m a walker, so I love it. I think it’s a wonderful advantage to live here,” she said.
Sandra Tucher, who has lived there
since 2005, agrees.“It’s very central, and everything seems
very close and accessible,” she said. “It seems like everything’s just a bike ride away.”
She also said that the proximity of downtown gives it a comfortable, urban feel.
“There’s often just people circulating in the neighborhood,” Tucher said. “It’s nice to feel like it’s frequented by lots of different people.”
Peters said the residents’ tendency to take frequent strolls contributes to Professorville’s neighborly atmosphere.
“There’s a lot of sitting on porches and talking to neighbors,” Peters said.
Community events tend to be exclusive to a particular area or group of friends, she said.
“There’s a little dinner here, a little dinner there,” Peters said.
Kelli Tomlinson, a friend of Tucher’s, recounted, “One of our neighbors organized a little progressive dinner that moved down the street from one house to the next. And then there was a little tea party at Christmas.”
“We have quite a span in the age range, but I have no qualms about going to a neighbor and asking for a cube of butter,” Tucher said.
— Thea Lamkin
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Addison Kids’ Club, 650 Addison Ave.; Downtown Child Care Center — CCLC, 848 Ramona St.; The Learning Center, 459 Kingsley Ave. fiRe Station: No. 1, 301 Alma St., and No. 3, 799 Embarcadero Road liBRaRy: Downtown branch, 270 Forest Ave. (temporarily closed for renovations)loCation: bounded by Kingsley and Addison avenues from Cowper to Ramona streetspaRkS: Scott Street Mini Park, Scott Street and Channing Avenue; Heritage Park, Homer Avenue and Waverley StreetpoSt offiCe: Hamilton, 380 Hamilton Ave.pRiVate SCHool (neaRBy): Castilleja School, 1310 Bryant St.pUBliC SCHoolS: Addison Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG: University Avenue; Town & Country Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $2,347,500 ($645,000-$7,995,000)HoMeS Sold: 6 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $960,000 CondoS Sold: 1
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Barbara Wolfe and her husband Elliott wanted to settle down after moving around the country for many years, and after one visit to Palo Alto in 1970, she remembers thinking, “This is it. ... This is home.”
Forty years, three remodels and many memories later, they still live in their home on Madison Avenue, in what was then called Green Gables.
Margot Lockwood-Stein and her husband Tom Stein came to Duveneck in 2007 in search of a neighborhood where their children Ben and Katherine could safely play outside. They were attracted to the canopy of trees that surrounded their eventual home on Walter Hays Drive and appreciate how the neighborhood gives their children access to “great schools all the way ’til high school,” Lockwood-Stein said.
“We had bid on a similar (house) a year before, so I knew Margot would love it,” Stein said.
These two families’ experiences provide insight into daily life in Duveneck and the shared experiences that bring its residents together.
Socializing on Duveneck’s streets and sidewalks is very important to both families. The houses in the Steins’ corner of the neighborhood are “really attractive” and well-kept, Lockwood-Stein said, and minimal traffic makes their street a safe, active social hub.
“We’ll take a walk around the loop and the kids will all be playing, and we’ll be hanging out with the grown-ups,” Lockwood-Stein said.
The Steins also enjoy wandering slightly further afield. Their children spend a lot of time at Eleanor Pardee Park, and Stein, an
avid tennis player, appreciates Duveneck’s proximity to the courts at Rinconada Park.
Wolfe described “Eleanor” Park as an especial “delight.” Palo Alto’s abundance of child-friendly facilities — including the Children’s Library and the Junior Museum & Zoo, both of which are within walking distance from Duveneck — impressed her during her first visit to the city, she said.
However, frequent traffic on her street discourages many of her neighbors from walking around the neighborhood and socializing, she said. Turning nearby Edgewood Plaza shopping center into a “community hub” would help solve this problem, she said.
For now, she walks her dog daily and enjoys meeting people who are out with their own pets. She and her friends also take weekly walks to University Avenue and Town & Country shopping center — Duveneck’s closest commercial districts.
The Steins wanted to move to Palo Alto because of its excellent school system, Lockwood-Stein said. She and her husband are thankful that five of their neighbors have children in the same grade at Duveneck Elementary as their son.
“Both of us grew up in the same group of kids through high school, and we knew how beneficial that could be,” he said.
Wolfe’s memories of Green Gables, as Duveneck Elementary was called until 1982, are more colorful.
“In the ’70s, everything was, you know, hanging loose,” she said.
Wolfe’s daughter Laura, who started attending Green Gables as a first grader, said that she and her classmates were seated in a circle by their teacher — “with all the heads pressed together” — and
taught the principles of group meditation.She also recalled a teacher who lived in
the neighborhood and often sat outside in his car — a large convertible with a steer’s horns mounted on the hood — to greet passing students.
“It was nice to go over there and say hi,” she said.
Laura Wolfe moved back to Duveneck with her husband Daniel Cher in 1998 after leaving for college years before. The couple bid on many Palo Alto houses but ended up on Iris Lane — a street about five blocks from Barbara Wolfe’s — where they now live with their daughters Emma and Clara.
“The school is better since I was here. ... There are teacher’s aides and more parent involvement,” she said.
Moving to Duveneck can be difficult. Lockwood-Stein said that Duveneck’s high real estate prices make living there “a very big financial decision” and that their current house is significantly smaller than the San Mateo house they lived in beforehand.
But “the neighborhood is so great, it was worth it,” Stein said.
Barbara Wolfe is just glad to have found a quiet neighborhood with “tight community bonds (and) friendly neighbors,” she said.
“The beauty is we have created a small-town environment in the larger environment of the Peninsula,” she said.
— Martin Sanchez
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Duveneck Kids’ Club, 705 Alester Ave.fiRe Station: No. 3, 799 Embarcadero RoadliBRaRy: Main Library, 1213 Newell Road loCation: bounded by San Francisquito Creek, Oregon Expressway, Greer Road, Embarcadero Road and Newell RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Karen White, 650-494-7026, [email protected] (neaRBy): Eleanor Pardee Park, 851 Center Drive; Rinconada Park, 777 Embarcadero Road poSt offiCe: Main, 2085 E. Bayshore Road pRiVate SCHoolS (neaRBy): International School of the Peninsula, 151 Laura Lane; St. Elizabeth Seton, 1095 Channing Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Duveneck Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High School SHoppinG: Edgewood Shopping Center (to be renovated); University AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,326,500 ($850,000-$2,600,000)HoMeS Sold: 40
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COMMunItY Center
Situated between Middlefield, Embarcadero and Newell roads and Channing Avenue, the colorful, open yards and sidewalks shaded by trees in the Community Center neighborhood welcome neighbors to stop and chat with passer-bys.
Within two blocks in each direction, residents have everything they could want in a neighborhood brimming with children.
“It’s a great neighborhood for kids,” said Meg Clayton, who moved to the Community Center neighborhood in 2002. “You can get to parks, libraries, even the Children’s Theatre without having to cross a major road.”
“We have access to everything,” said Gaynor Brown, a resident who moved in 10 years ago. “Everything is close — the parks, the swimming pool, all the schools. It’s a 20-minute walk into town. You’ve got the library. You’ve got the (Junior) Museum. There’s a lot going on.”
Brown’s decision to move to the neighborhood was influenced by the fact she could walk or cycle whenever she wanted to. Her two daughters have followed her model.
“They haven’t needed cars,” Brown said. “It was really easy for them to walk or bike to school. It’s always felt very safe walking around.”
Marvin Lee moved to the neighborhood more than 40 years ago with his wife and two children.
“It just looked like an ideal place for us,” Lee said. “It was only two blocks from the
park in either direction. Rinconada Park is on the one side, Eleanor Pardee Park on the other. Then the library was two blocks in the other direction. And the Children’s Theatre and all the children’s activities two blocks west.”
Not much has changed since Lee moved in.
“It’s been a wonderful community,” Lee said. “We’ve pretty much retained the way it was. The community center area remains an extremely desirable area. You can see it in the prices. It deserves people saying, ‘I’ll pay any price to live there.’”
Carmen Muñoz Chappuis has lived in the Community Center neighborhood since 1999 and her three children have participated in various activities — Children’s Theatre outreach, Girl Scouts, tennis lessons and swimming at Rinconada Park. She said she loves being able to bike with her children to all of these activities, and to walk or bike to the Palo Alto Farmers Market. On date nights, she and her husband often walk downtown and have dinner.
“The location is great, but what I think makes it really special is the people who live here,” said Clayton, author of “The Wednesday Sisters.” “It’s a very friendly neighborhood. People know their neighbors. We have block parties. We have a book group. Everyone is always out walking around.”
The block parties began more than 40 years ago, and the book group began in 2004.
“When we moved to Palo Alto, we knew not a soul,” Clayton said. “The neighborhood has really drawn together. Before the book group was started I knew a couple people in the neighborhood. Now we have parties outside the book group. We connect in so many ways, even just walking dogs.”
Rick Ferguson, president of the Community Center Neighbors’ Association, has seen families come and go, but said the dynamic remains unchanged.
“We’ve had new home development and an influx of younger families,” Ferguson said. “There’s been a marvelous infusion of new blood and new faces.”
Ferguson was impressed by the community’s response when a neighbor’s home caught fire in 2008.
“There was a wonderful turn-out,” Ferguson said. “The neighbors were all there in a matter of minutes and the family’s needs were met. The neighbors and neighborhood are there when they need to pull together.”
Muñoz Chappuis echoed Ferguson’s praise for her neighbors. When she had a medical issue, the book club brought her meals and took care of her pets.
“If I’m out of something, like eggs, I’ll ask around instead of running to the store with three kids.
“We wouldn’t trade Community Center for any place in Palo Alto,” she said.
— Emily James
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Walter Hays Kids’ Club, 1525 Middlefield RoadfiRe Station: No. 3, 799 Embarcadero RoadliBRaRy: Main Library, 1213 Newell Road, Children’s Library, 1276 Harriet St. loCation: bounded by Middlefield Road, Channing Avenue, Newell Road and Embarcadero Road neiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Rick Ferguson, 650-327-3222, [email protected] paRK: Rinconada Park, 777 Embarcadero RoadpoSt offiCe: Main, 2085 E. Bayshore Road; Hamilton, 380 Hamilton Ave. pRiVate SCHool: St. Elizabeth Seton School, 1095 Channing Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Walter Hays, Addison or Duveneck elementary schools, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG: Midtown, Downtown Palo AltoMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,770,000 ($985,000-$3,650,000)HoMeS Sold: 20
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lelAnd MAnOr/eMbArCAderO OAks/gArlAnd drIVe
Leland Manor, Embarcadero Oaks and Garland Drive may be small, but their sense of community runs large. The idyllic mini-neighborhoods nestle in a parallelogram in eastern Palo Alto, bounded by the Oregon Expressway, Middlefield Road, Embarcadero Road and Louis Road.
Residents say you cannot beat the location, with shops and eateries within walking distance at Midtown, California Avenue, University Avenue and Stanford University. Sought-after schools and a nearby community center, children’s theater and library keep local children busy. Several of the area’s serene streets come to life for annual holiday festivities.
Leland ManorMany Leland Manor families have lived
there since the area developed 70 years ago, but the last decade has seen an influx of newcomers. Recent transplant Heidi Schwenk found her dream house on quiet Northampton Drive in 2006. She has since discovered that it was the first in the neighborhood and designed by renowned Palo Alto architect Birge Clark.
Another piece of history is up the road: A brick house at Newell Road was a prototypical “modern house” in San Francisco’s 1939 World’s Fair exposition.
Most homes in the area are single-story California ranchers spread out on 10-12,000 square-foot lots, with some contemporary exceptions. Leland Manor’s rolled curbs and wireless skies (electric and telephone lines are underground) give the still streets an expansive feel.
Swing sets and roses decorate front yards, along with the occasional palm, birch or Japanese maple. Some residents tend vegetable gardens and even chicken coops.
Defined by a central ring of streets encircling twin cul-de-sacs, Leland Manor receives little traffic. Residents say this seclusion contributes to their strong sense of community.
A Fourth of July parade brings neighbors together annually, a community corkboard displays signs for dog walkers and missing rabbits, and resident Kathleen Hughes is organizing volunteers for emergency preparedness. Longtime resident Lorraine Berry drops
recommended books in neighbors’ mailboxes and runs Easter egg hunts.
“People really look out for each other,” Schwenk said.
Embarcadero OaksLights and tinsel transform Fulton
Street into a winter wonderland every year, drawing thousands of visitors to “Christmas Tree Lane.” Residents have kept the tradition alive since 1940, and new arrivals inherit decorations from previous owners. Before the lights go on, neighbors have coffee together.
“It’s a real neighborhood,” said Mike Klum, who has lived in a house Herbert Hoover built as Stanford University president since 1974.
Lined with tall sycamores and houses that date back to the 1930s, including some designs by Birge Clark, Fulton Street also stands out during the rest of the year. It was once the eastern edge of a neighborhood that extended past Middlefield and has architecture in Tudor Revival and Monterey Colonial styles. Several ancient oaks lend the area its name.
The rest of the neighborhood’s California-style homes went up after World War II, on streets of descending length branching off Seale Avenue.
A resurgence of families with young children has re-defined the well-kept neighborhood. Caroline Steene, a Swedish citizen who has rented a house in the area for two years, rides her bicycle around with two kids in tow. She appreciates local schools, diversity and — of course — Christmas Tree Lane.
“We don’t do it like that in Sweden.”
Garland DriveWinding Garland Drive is mostly a
tranquil community, but it has catapulted many residents into civic affairs. Frances Dias and Robert Cooley served on the City Council in the 1960s. Most recently, Dick Rosenbaum, a resident of almost four decades, served two terms over 12 years.
Residents have also been active around local issues. Neighbors successfully lobbied the City to close a youth hangout in the 1960s and add stop signs in the 1970s.
Recent issues center on local schools. Some residents voiced concern about noise
and traffic following a planned reopening and expansion of Garland Elementary School, currently leased to private Stratford School. The City postponed the plan in 2009 after enrollment slowed.
At adjacent Jordan Middle School, the City responded to residents’ complaints against a “nightmare of noise, traffic and trash” resulting from public use of the school’s soccer field, according to neighborhood activist Faith Braf.
In general, residents agree that magnolia-lined Garland Drive is “just a good neighborhood to bring up children,” Rosenbaum said. Most of the children had grown up and moved away until 15 years ago, when new families trickled in.
Nearly all of Garland Drive’s 90 houses are original, single-story post-war constructions. One of the area’s four cul-de-sacs has a well-established Fourth of July party, and many residents belong to a Yahoo group.
“It’s a block where people stay,” said Braf, whose daughter lives on the same street. “People tend to know each other.”
— Katia Savchuk
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): First Congregational Church Nursery School, 1985 Louis Road; Parents Nursery School, 2328 Louis Road; Walter Hays Kids’ Club, 1525 Middlefield RoadfiRe Station: No. 3, 799 Embarcadero RoadloCation: Leland Manor: between Middlefield and Louis roads, Seale and North California avenues; Embarcadero Oaks: triangle formed by Embarcadero Road, Seale Avenue and Middlefield Road; Garland Drive: between Middlefield and Louis roadsliBRaRy: Main Library, 1213 Newell Road paRk (neaRBy): Rinconada Park, 777 Embarcadero RoadpoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave. pRiVate SCHool: Hwa Chin School, 750 N. California Ave.; Stratford School, 870 N. California Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Walter Hays Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High School SHoppinG: MidtownMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,749,300 ($1,195,000-$3,150,000)HoMeS Sold: 12
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Old PAlO AltOGamble Garden, a 2.5-acre public oasis
featuring diverse demonstration and formal gardens, educational programs and grand historic buildings, lies at the heart of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood.
A crown jewel of the city, the garden, residents say, is representative of the things they love about their neighborhood as a whole: beautiful architecture, lush, well-tended greenery and a friendly atmosphere.
Old Palo Alto, which stretches from Alma Street to Middlefield Road and between Embarcadero Road and the Oregon Expressway, is one of the city’s wealthiest and most desirable, popular with such local celebrity Steves as footballer Steve Young and Apple honcho Steve Jobs. And despite the “old” name, another Steve, city historian Steve Staiger, said it isn’t the oldest neighborhood in town, with its first homes not built until after the turn of the 20th century.
“I think Realtors gave it that name because it sounds cool,” he said.
Though the appropriateness of its name may be up for debate, it’s reputation as a pleasant place to live is not.
“It’s got a great urban canopy and a great neighborhood feel,” Nadia Naik, founder of the recently created Old Palo Alto Neighborhood Association, said. “It’s
historic, walkable and bikeable.” Naik moved to the area from Boston
four years ago and liked the quiet, tree- and flower-filled atmosphere and “eclectic, hodgepodge” of houses, including Craftsman, Eichler, Colonial and Mediterranean-style homes.
Fellow resident Mary Haverstock has renovated her own house several times and currently resides in a Craftsman-style home.
“We tried to maintain some of the integrity of the original design,” she said. “The housing styles of the neighborhood are a real mix, and I love that,” she said.
Haverstock and her family made the decision to return to Palo Alto from San Francisco in 1994 and specifically chose Old Palo Alto because of the “beauty and charm of the area” and its family-friendly environment, including the excellent school system, she said.
Haverstock, who, like Naik, has kids in the local schools, which include Walter Hays and Addison Elementary, said it has been ideal for bringing up her family. And, she said, “Four new families with small kids” have recently moved near her home on Byron Street, “which is a change.”
Turnover that brings in new families and children to mix with the older, long-time population? “That’s really fun,” she said.
Daniel Garber, former chair of the city’s Planning and Transportation Commission, has called Old Palo Alto home since 1996. He said the neighborhood reminded him and his wife of the Midwestern communities they grew up in, and that his family has enjoyed many block parties over the years.
The central location, too, is an important feature for residents.
“It doesn’t have many attractions, but it’s close to Midtown and California Avenue,” he said, and downtown is within reach as well.
“It’s not always organized,” but there is a friendly feel, with neighbors chatting and socializing often, Haverstock said, explaining that there is more block-to-block activity than an overarching neighborhood identity.
“It’s the perfect amount of neighborhood involvement; we’re not busybodies,” she said, laughing.
“When I’m out and about, walking my dog, looking at the gardens and flowers, I meet people,” she said. “It’s a real community.”
— Karla Kane
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Neighborhood Infant-Toddler Center, 311 N. California Ave.; Walter Hays Kids’ Club, 1525 Middlefield RoadfiRe Station: No. 3, 799 Embarcadero RoadliBRaRy: Main Library, 1213 Newell RoadloCation: between Embarcadero Road and Oregon Expressway, Alma Street and Middlefield RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Old Palo Alto Neighborhood Association (OPANA), Nadia Naik, [email protected] paRkS: Bowden Park, Alma Street and California Avenue; Bowling Green Park, 474 Embarcadero Road; Kellogg Park, next to Bowling Green ParkpoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHool: Castilleja School, 1310 Bryant St.pUBliC SCHoolS: Addison or Walter Hays elementary schools, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High School SHoppinG: Town & Country Village; MidtownMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,931,000 ($755,000-$7,300,000)HoMeS Sold: 31
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sOuthgAteThe former orchard that is Southgate
was owned by the Stanfords until the 1920s, when they sold and subdivided it. Lucile Lauren has lived in Southgate so long she still has the 1923 documents that banned alcohol and poultry from the neighborhood, as well as “any person of African, Japanese or Chinese descent.”
The neighborhood has changed.Southgate, bordered by El Camino Real,
Park Boulevard, the Caltrain tracks and Churchill Avenue, has dense leafy foliage, little gas-lamp-style streetlights and a “hidden” walkway that connects Sequoia Avenue and El Camino Real. The little houses — increasingly bigger — are laid out in cul-de-sac-esque geography that deters commuting drivers, and attracts bicyclists and walkers.
Besides adding to its pedestrian feel, Southgate’s geographically defined boundary adds to its neighborhood identity. “There’s no question about who lives in Southgate,” legal consultant and Southgate resident since 2006 Martha Klein said.
With Stanford, Palo Alto High School, the Caltrain, California Avenue, University Avenue, and Town & Country Village all within walking-distance, residents love the location. “For teens, it’s perfect,” Irina Gorelik, a mother of four and Southgate
resident since 2007, said.Southgate reminds Klein of the North
Carolina of her childhood, when kids played in the street after dinner. Of course in the 1960s Southgate kids also played in the park after dinner. Lauren, who’s lived in Southgate since 1945, remembers telling her kids she’d meet them in the park when she finished eating.
“I see a daily procession of people with dogs, women with babies, fathers taking the twins to Peers Park, and of course lots of bikers,” Klein said, lifting a snoozing cat from her couch. “This cat isn’t mine — probably a neighbor’s. This is how cozy Southgate is,” Klein said.
Stuart Sailer, father of two, moved to Southgate in 2005. He fell in love with the sense of community — the number of people walking on the street and the small scale of the neighborhood. “It was even more friendly than we’d expected.”
The neighborhood holds annual Memorial Day block parties and toy drives. Individual blocks sometimes organize parties and picnics. Neighbors arrange folding chairs in the middle of the street, and spend the evening eating and talking.
Southgate has seen a lot of construction in the last two years. Gorelik estimated that since she moved in at least five or six former cottages have become sizeable
homes with added second floors. When she arrived in Southgate, Gorelik knew her house was too small for her family, but the location was too perfect to pass up. She is now working on expanding her own home as well.
Palo Alto High School teacher and Southgate resident since 1996 Kate McKenzie also noticed the trend to make over small houses. “I don’t want to criticize people who build bigger houses, but it has changed the face of the neighborhood,”
McKenzie said.The proposed high-speed rail
that would link San Diego to San Francisco has become the biggest issue in the community. “We all wanted it, but it’s a bummer to have it go through your neighborhood. It could possibly rip up a whole street of houses. It is going to make a pastoral neighborhood louder,” McKenzie said.
Lauren worried that the high-speed rail may take out her garage. The rail project, however, could take more than a decade to organize and construct, Lauren said. Her house’s inheritors will likely have to deal with the high-speed rail, “but at my age, I’m not too worried that it will impact me.”
— Georgia Wells
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Casa dei Bambini, 457 College Ave.; Escondido Kids’ Club, 890 Escondido Road; Walter Hays Kids’ Club, 1525 Middlefield RoadfiRe Station: No. 6, 711 Serra St. on the Stanford CampusliBRaRieS: Main Library, 1213 Newell Road; and College Terrace branch, 2300 Wellesley St. loCation: bounded by El Camino Real, Park Boulevard, the railroad tracks and Churchill AvenueneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Jim McFall, [email protected], 650-327-4428paRK: Alexander Peers Park, 1899 Park Blvd.poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave. pUBliC SCHoolS: Escondido and Walter Hays elementary schools, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High School.SHoppinG: Town & Country Village; California AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,755,000 ($866,000-$2,267,000)HoMeS Sold: 11
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eVergreen PArk
trIPle el
Not far from the bustle of the California Avenue commercial district lies a neighborhood so quiet one can hear the evening crickets.
Located between Oregon Expressway, Park Boulevard, El Camino Real and College Avenue, Evergreen Park offers easy access to the shopping district, Stanford University and Caltrain, as well as the College Terrace Library and Peers Park.
The location and access are among the main draws for residents. They’re also attracted to a family atmosphere with kids of various ages, and a diverse community.
Two annual events — a block-party potluck and the Peers Park barbecue — draw residents together. Every year the block party is held on a different street, Steve Godfrey, a resident of Oxford Avenue since 1999, said.
“The neighborhood has a broad base of involvement this way because rather than have it at one corner every year we have it at different sections. ... Rotating it gives everyone a chance to be involved,” he said.
His son and daughter bike to local
Jordan Middle School with a group of kids.There are about 150 single-family
homes, and about 250 multi-family homes that include condos as well as apartments, David Schrom, a resident of Oxford Avenue since 1976 and neighborhood association president, said.
Many homes are newly built and many others recently renovated. Some older houses date back to before the town of Mayfield was joined with Palo Alto.
Tommy Derrick, a Leland Avenue resident, lives in one of a few historical Evergreen Park homes with a history stretching back to Mayfield days. Called the Lockwood-Holston house, it was built for the Station Master Bert Holston and his wife, Gussie Ash Holston.
Derrick has lived here since 1977 and thinks this is the best neighborhood in all of Palo Alto. The access it brings as well as the local park really makes Evergreen Park shine, he said.
“This is a neighborhood where people take care of each other,” Derrick said.
— Mike Lata
“Living in Triple El is like living in a small village. Everyone is looking out for everyone else,” said Susan Usman, who moved to the Eichler-dominated neighborhood with her family in 2006.
“It just feels good to live here,” she said.Residents are known to look after each
other, to bring meals when they are sick, pick up their neighbor’s newspaper when they are gone and babysit their neighbor’s children.
Surrounded by North California Avenue and Oregon Expressway and by Louis and Greer roads, the three neighborhood streets — Elsinore Drive, Elsinore Court and El Cajon — appeal to newcomers with their Eichler design, contemporary architecture, “California Modern” home style and Elsinore Drive’s row of 44 Chinese elm trees.
“The Chinese elm trees were planted when the houses were built in 1955. They are the heart of this neighborhood. They are now so elegant and beautiful that they are forming a welcoming tunnel above the
street,” Heather Galanis, a resident since 1965, said.
Triple El is also filled with social life. “Where I used to live, I knew hardly anyone. Here I have lived for four years and I know all of my neighbors because of the block parties,” Usman said. “We were introduced as a new family two months after we moved in, at the fall ice cream social. Everyone was very welcoming.”
The small-village atmosphere is bolstered by the residents’ willingness to celebrate events during the year. Most neighbors show up at the New Year’s Day Mummers Parade, a Memorial Day’s barbecue and a fall ice cream social.
“There are games for children, music and for the Mummers Parade we wear costumes and we walk around the neighborhood,” Galanis said.
“All the parties are a good way to introduce new people to the group,” longtime resident Chuck Sieloff said.
He and his wife, Sally Dudley, have lived in Triple El since 1972. The neighborhood
has evolved significantly over the years with new families moving in from China, Japan, Korea, India, France and Switzerland. Residents include physicians, engineers, doctors, lawyers and others.
— Maud Lepine
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Casa dei Bambini Montessori School, 463 & 457 College Ave.; Escondido Kids’ Club, 890 Escondido RoadfiRe Station: No. 2, 2675 Hanover St.liBRaRy: College Terrace branch, 2300 Wellesley St.loCation: between Oregon Expressway, Park Boulevard, El Camino Real and College AvenueneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: David Schrom, 650-323-7333paRkS: Alexander Peers Park, 1899 Park Blvd.; Sarah Wallis Park, 202 Grant Ave.; Bowden Park, 2380 High St.poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHool: The Living Wisdom School, 456 College Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Escondido Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High School SHoppinG: California AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,800,000 ($950,000-$2,375,000) HoMeS Sold: 5 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $569,000 ($429,240-$590,000) CondoS Sold: 7
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): First Congregational Church Nursery School, 1985 Louis Road; Parents Nursery School, 2328 Louis Road; Duveneck Kids' Club, 705 Alester Ave.fiRe Station: No. 3, 799 Embarcadero RoadliBRaRy: Main Library, 1213 Newell RoadloCation: Elsinore Drive, Elsinore Court and El Cajon paRkS (neaRBy): Rinconada Park, 777 Embarcadero Road; Greer Park, 1098 Amarillo Ave.poSt offiCe: Main, 2085 E. Bayshore RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: Duveneck Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG: MidtownMedian 2009 HoMe pRiCe: $1,295,000 ($1,275,000-$1,400,000)HoMeS Sold: 3 (0 in 2010)
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Deborah Greenberg/Ashton
650.207.5262www.deborahgreenberg.com
Emily Chiang
650.796.2285www.EmilyChiang.com
Nancy Goldcamp
650.752.0720www.nancygoldcamp.com
Fereshteh Khodadad
650.815.8850www.fereshtehkhodadad.com
Niloo James
650.814.0604www.NilooJames.com
Ann Griffiths
650.322.6666www.AnnMGriffiths.com
Kevin Klemm
Carole Feldstein
Stephanie Hewitt
Arvada Darnell
650.752.0709www.arvadadarnell.com
Dante Drummond650.400.9390
www.dantedrummond.com
Paul Engel
Penny Goldcamp
Leannah Hunt & Laurel Robinson
650.752.0730 [email protected]
Sue Crawford
Lyn Jason Cobb
Rod Creason
Brendan Callahan
Jo Buchanan & Stuart Bowen
650.947.2219 [email protected]
650-949-8506 [email protected]
Jackie Copple
Kim Copher
Judy Byrnes
Jean & Chris Isaacson
Janis Friedenberg Grube
650.346.8690JanisFridenbergGrube.com
Sean Foley
Erika Demma
Eppie Lam
Julie Lau
650.208.2287www.JulieLau.com
MENLO PARK I WOODSIDE I PALO ALTO I LOS ALTOS I LOS GATOS
Deborah Greenberg/Ashton
650.207.5262www.deborahgreenberg.com
Emily Chiang
650.796.2285www.EmilyChiang.com
Nancy Goldcamp
650.752.0720www.nancygoldcamp.com
Fereshteh Khodadad
650.815.8850www.fereshtehkhodadad.com
Niloo James
650.814.0604www.NilooJames.com
Ann Griffiths
650.322.6666www.AnnMGriffiths.com
Kevin Klemm
Carole Feldstein
Stephanie Hewitt
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650.752.0709www.arvadadarnell.com
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www.dantedrummond.com
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When wealthy farmer and landowner Alexander Gordon from San Mateo County purchased a 120-acre tract of land in 1887, he named its streets after illustrious American colleges and universities, giving birth to College Terrace.
The neighborhood, with its vast streets, fragrant gardens and pastiche of architectural styles, is “the most neighborhoody neighborhood in Palo Alto,” said homebuilder William Hurt, former vice president of the College Terrace Residents’ Association (CTRA) and a resident of 56 years.
“Everybody knows everybody else. It’s also small unlike Midtown, which is generic.”
With its four modest parks, labyrinth of blocked-off streets and collection of childcare centers, College Terrace is notoriously kid-friendly. Children and parents can be spotted hand-in-hand on summery Friday afternoons, strolling past old houses with towers and side gables in the Queen Anne style, and quaint English cottages. The neighborhood’s most ancient dwelling, 2310 Yale St., was built in 1889. The Victorian house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The community was not always dominated by youth, however. “One huge change occurred in the early ’80s,” Maggie Heath, a resident since 1973, said. “Prior
to that there were few children in the neighborhood. When I was pregnant in 1980, I didn’t see anyone with babies or toddlers. Then babies and toddlers started to appear, including mine. Since then, the number of children has gradually been increasing as more and more families make College Terrace home.”
Escondido Elementary School, with its bilingual English and Spanish program, is also a draw for children in the neighborhood. “At 8 a.m. it’s a virtual caravan of kids and parents off to school and work,” Hurt said. Summer block parties and community picnics at Dartmouth Park, as well as a mass Easter egg hunt, are organized annually.
A recent issue in the neighborhood was concern over closure of JJ&F Market, which was a staple in College Terrace for 62 years.
“If I go grocery shopping at Mollie Stone’s, nobody knows me. But if I go to JJ’s, everyone knows me and the names of my children,” Hurt said. The market was replaced by Redwood City-based Emerald Market in December.
Another concern for College Terrace is the traffic impact of Facebook shuttles that run down California Avenue to the Research Park, where the social networking company moved their offices in 2009.
“The shuttle program is in some ways beneficial, because it allows workers to not drive in via individual vehicle. But the frequency of the shuttles is a problem, and Facebook is meeting with the city and with the College Terrace Residents’ Association to roll back the program,” CTRA Board Secretary Fred Balin said.
Despite the recent challenges to College Terrace, the neighborhood remains “one of the hottest neighborhoods in Palo Alto,” Hurt said. “People always come back. Many Stanford graduates who stayed here when they were going to school move back here with their families. I think it’s because the neighborhood has charm. It’s eclectic and extremely quiet. It’s just evolved that way.”
College Terrace is a family-oriented community with its own idiosyncratic spirit. “One thing is for sure,” Heath said. “With all the new families moving into the neighborhood, College Terrace will continue to be a vibrant and loved neighborhood for quite a while longer.”
— Daniela Reichelstein
COllege terrACe FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: College Terrace Children’s Center, 2300 Wellesley Ave.; Bing Nursery School, 850 Escondido Road; Escondido Kids’ Club, 890 Escondido Road; Pepper Tree After School Program, 865 Escondido Road fiRe Station: No. 2, 2675 Hanover St. and No. 6, 711 Serra St. on the Stanford campusliBRaRy: College Terrace, 2300 Wellesley St.loCation: bounded by Stanford Avenue, El Camino Real, California Avenue and Amherst StreetneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: College Terrace Residents’ Association, Brent Barker, president, www.ctra.orgpaRkS: Donaldina Cameron Park, 2100 Wellesley St.; Mayfield Park, 2300 Wellesley St.; Weisshaar Park, 2298 Dartmouth St.; Werry Park, 2100 Dartmouth St.poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Escondido Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High SchoolSHoppinG: California AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,172,500 ($675,000-$2,700,000)HoMeS Sold: 8Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $799,000 CondoS Sold: 1
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Nearly 20 years ago, Midtown resident Sylvia Gartner went to a city council meeting, waved a paper bag and said, “If I can’t put something in here and take it home, it shouldn’t be in the shopping center.”
Her gesture was part of the Midtown Residents Association’s effort to prevent the shopping area from being filled with computer startups or dot-com businesses. Gartner said that those didn’t help the area, and the MRA wanted the shopping center to be “neighborhood-serving,” Gartner said.
This focus on residential life is key to the culture of Midtown, which extends from Oregon Expressway to Loma Verde Avenue and Alma Street to West Bayshore Road.
Just ask the residents. Kerry Kenny moved to Midtown as a child in 1982 and lived there until college. As an adult with her own children, she moved back in 2005.
“We love being able to walk to get a great cup of coffee in the morning, ice cream in the evening, but also have the serenity of the quiet streets and lovely parks in the neighborhood,” she said.
Affordability is another major selling point. Connie Butner arrived in 1993 lured by the lower prices and good schools, which she said is a draw for young families.
“We were attracted to the fantastic
schools in the area, like Palo Verde and Gunn,” she said. “This has a great community feel and most people know everyone else and want to help. It’s the perfect place for us.”
The Midtown Residents Association has focused on preserving the neighborhood feel that sets the area apart. Gartner was a founding member in 1994.
“We were all concerned about how Midtown was starting to look really ragged with businesses closed in the shopping district and boarded windows. So we all met at what is now Mike’s Cafe and agreed that we needed to form an association to see what we could do to prevent the deterioration of our neighborhood,” she said.
In addition to successfully asking the city council to keep the shopping district strictly commercial, members hold monthly meetings and block parties and threw their 10th annual ice cream social in September.
Much has changed since 1994 though, Gartner said, and not all for the better. Once known for its Eichlers — homes with open floor plans and glass doors — Midtown has gone through heavy renovation.
“So many people seem to want to buy up smaller houses and tear them up and make it almost unrecognizable from what
it was before,” Gartner said. “Things keep coming and going and now we have a couple karate studios and exercise places and sandwich places. I remember when there was Bergman’s shopping mall. I really miss it.”
On the other hand, Kenny said the renovations are an improvement, calling the mix of new homes and Eichlers “eclectic” and praising the expanded shopping center.
Jill Matzke, who moved to Midtown in 1995, said the development makes the area more attractive for new residents and loves the local Hoover, Greer and Mitchell parks.
“There’s such a sense of safety, and we’re a true residential neighborhood with a vibrant community. The neighborhood is full of life with children and the next generation moving in,” Matzke said.
— Angela Chen
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Grace Lutheran Preschool, 3149 Waverley St.; Love’n’Care Christian Preschool, 2490 Middlefield Road; Mini Infant Center of Palo Alto, 3149 Waverley St.; Ohlone Kids’ Club (PACCC), 950 Amarillo Ave.; Palo Alto Friends Nursery School, 957 Colorado Ave.fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: between Oregon Expressway and Loma Verde Avenue, Alma Street and West Bayshore RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Sheri Furman, 650-856-0869, [email protected], www.midtownresidents.orgpaRkS: Greer Park, 1098 Amarillo Ave.; Hoover Park, 2901 Cowper St.; Seale Park, 3100 Stockton PlacepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.; Main, 2085 E. Bayshore RoadpRiVate SCHoolS: Keys School, 2890 Middlefield Road; HeadsUp! Emerson School, 2800 W. Bayshore RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: El Carmelo, Fairmeadow, Hoover, Ohlone and Palo Verde elementary schools; J. L. Stanford Middle School; Gunn or Palo Alto high schools SHoppinG: Midtown Shopping Center, Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue; also Middlefield Road at Loma Verde AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,250,000 ($799,000-$2,615,000)HoMeS Sold: 69Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $691,970 ($399,950-$996,000) CondoS Sold: 14
MIdtOwn
Nicholas W
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Tim Foy“Broker”
Molly Foy RichRealtor
Jane VolpeRealtor/MBA
Leslie ZeislerRealtor ®, SRES, AHS
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Yamei LeeRealtor
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Your Neighborhood Midtown Realty Team
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sOuth OF MIdtOwn
st. ClAIre gArdens
The front yards of the South of Midtown neighborhood are littered with Razor scooters and half-sized dirt bikes.
“It’s an Ozzie-and-Harriet type of place,” Rusty Jacobi said as he washed his car on a crisp, autumn morning. “You can’t have Palo Alto anywhere else,” he said.
Jacobi has lived all over the western United States, but he and his wife moved back to the neighborhood where they grew up.
South of Midtown is the type of place where the biggest problem is what to call the neighborhood. Longtime resident Jean Griffiths says that the area is named “Barron Creek,” and Sheri Furman, chair of the Midtown Residents Association says that “South of Midtown” is nothing more than “a real estate marketing designation.”
Whatever you want to call it, the neighborhood is bordered by Middlefield Road, Alma Street, Loma Verde Avenue and East Meadow Drive.
Griffiths has been a resident for more than 45 years and remembers that when the neighborhood first got started many residents were World War II veterans.
“The success of the Silicon Valley
brought about the biggest changes, with housing prices soaring and pricing out of the market our previous neighbors,” she said.
There are similar remodels to those seen around the valley, but the cottage feel of the neighborhood is still intact. Griffith sees the remodels as an improvement South of Midtown needs. She said the houses were cheap rush jobs when they were built in the ’50s and could benefit from some green retrofitting.
Mary Saxton moved in 2000 “because the Palo Alto public schools were better than Menlo’s.”
She likes the amenities such as the library, grocery and nearby Mitchell Park.
“There are quite a few events at the park. They have concerts and a Fourth of July picnic,” she said.
According to Jacobi, the whole neighborhood gets into the act for the annual block party. “We’ve got singers and a band. There’s a cabaret singer down the street. Of course there are professors. One made ice cream out of air. The kids loved it.”
— John Squire
In a city known for Eichler communities, St. Claire Gardens proves to be an aberration. Rather than a tract of homes with low-sloping roofs, atriums, glass walls, concrete floors and other modernist features, the homes populating St. Claire Drive, St. Michaels Drive and St. Michaels Court follow a more conventional design.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco developed St. Claire Gardens in the early 1950s, around the same time Joseph Eichler designed nearby Fairmeadow.
Sandy and Brock Hinzmann mentioned the lack of small children as something that has changed since moving to the neighborhood in 1978.
“Obviously those of us who have been here for 30 years have gotten older, and our children have left, and we’ve got grandchildren now, and that sort of thing,” Sworakowski said. “But I would say over the (last) 15 years or so, there has been a big influx of families.”
In the morning, the horseshoe-shaped St. Michaels Drive, which unites with St.
Claire Drive on each end, illustrates why the Hinzmanns describe the neighborhood as “children friendly” and “a nice quiet street.”
St. Claire Gardens would be enclosed from the rest of Palo Alto if not for two outlets on St. Claire Drive, leading to Middlefield Road and Cowper Street, respectively. Because little traffic filters in, the streets remain quiet.
“When my children were younger, we used to have big Fourth of July parties out on the court here,” Sworakowski said. “Now we do have block parties. It’s a very, very tight-knit neighborhood.”
Dave Spencer, who moved to St. Claire Gardens in 2007 with his wife and baby, described a block party he attended. “We took over the street. We set up an amazing number of tables. And everyone from a block away came. And we saw people that have been here 10, 20, 30 or more years, so it was very neat to see that.
“We’re happy here,” Spencer said. “The street’s much quieter. We found people very friendly. It feels like a stable neighborhood.”
— Richard To
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Besse Bolton Kids' Club, 500 E. Meadow Drive; Milestones Preschool, 3864 Middlefield Road; Covenant Children’s Center, 670 E. Meadow Drive; El Carmelo Kids' Club, 3024 Bryant St.; Grace Lutheran Preschool, 3149 Waverley St.fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: bounded by Loma Verde Avenue, East Meadow Drive, Middlefield Road and Alma StreetneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: part of Midtown Residents’ Association, Sheri Furman, 650-856-0869, www.midtownresidents.orgpaRkS: Mitchell Park, 3600 E. Meadow Drive; Hoover Park 2901 Cowper St.poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHoolS (neaRBy): International School of the Peninsula, 3233 Cowper St.; Challenger School, 3880 Middlefield Road; Keys School Lower Campus, 2890 Middlefield RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: El Carmelo and Fairmeadow elementary schools, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High School SHoppinG: Midtown Shopping Center, Middlefield Road and Loma Verde Avenue; Charleston CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,275,000 ($910,000-$2,185,000)HoMeS Sold: 22
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Mini Infant Center of Palo Alto, 3149 Waverley St.fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: St. Claire Drive, St. Michaels Drive and St. Michaels CourtpaRkS (neaRBy): Hoover Park, 2901 Cowper St.; Mitchell Park, 600 E. Meadow DrivepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.; Main, 2085 E. Bayshore RoadpRiVate SCHoolS: International School of the Peninsula, 3233 Cowper St.; Keys School, 2890 Middlefield RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: El Carmelo Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: Midtown Shopping Center, Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue; also Middlefield Road at Loma Verde AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,350,000 ($1,205,000-$1,500,000)HoMeS Sold: 3
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PAlO Verde
AdObe MeAdOw/MeAdOw PArk
Bill and Smokey Chapman, longtime residents of Louis Road in Palo Verde, have seen people and families come and go since they moved there in 1963. Like the Eichler Swim and Tennis Club next door, the Chapmans have remained one of the neighborhood’s few constants over the past 50 years.
“When my husband and I were looking at the house in ’63, the Eichler Club was only a few years old, and when I saw that pool I said ‘Wow. This is it,’” Smokey Chapman said. She still swims at the club nearly every day.
Palo Verde is a neighborhood of mostly Eichler and Eichler-inspired homes bordered by West Bayshore and Middlefield roads to the east and west, and Loma Verde Avenue and East Meadow Drive to the north and south. Much of the area’s street plan of narrow roads and cul-de-sacs was designed to keep traffic to a minimum and to foster a sense of community.
Chapman loved the distinctive design of their Eichler home the first time she saw it.
“I remember thinking that it looked really modern, with all the glass walls and open space,” she said.
Boris Foelsch, current head of Palo Verde’s residents’ association, says the neighborhood demographics have changed since he moved there with his family in 1988.
“There were a lot of original owners when we moved; they used to be on all sides of our property, and now there’s only one neighbor left,” Foelsch said.
Recently completed developments, such as SummerHill Homes’ Echelon, Classics at Sterling Park, and Warmington Home’s Vantage, have increased the number of young families moving into the Palo Verde area.
Palo Verde residents have formed bonds through organizations and clubs, including the reconstituted Palo Verde Residents Association.
Old friends socialize at community hubs such as the 52-year-old Eichler Swim and Tennis Club and the Family YMCA on Ross Road. New residents also get acquainted at these social centers.
“We’ve seen the area through lots of changes, but to us it still feels like a neighborhood. It’s home,” Chapman said.
— Alexander Papoulias
The Adobe Meadow and Meadow Park neighborhoods, nestled just east of Middlefield Road between East Meadow Drive and Charleston Road, and divided by Adobe Creek, have garnered a reputation as Palo Alto’s “sleepiest” neighborhoods.
Perusing the streets that branch from Louis Road, the only bridge across the creek, the cyclists, dog walkers and playing children outnumber motorists. On a blustery day, salt from the nearby Baylands can be picked up in the air, and humming traffic noise is muffled by the rustling canopy overhead.
The homes, a mix of Brown and Kauffman developments and Eichlers, are characterized by innovative use of color and landscaping; house exteriors appear in bold apple greens, creams, browns, natural wood, and in one case, purple with periwinkle trim. City trees, planted in yards rather than sidewalks, serve as centerpieces in neat lawns and gardens. Houses are largely one-story, with few exceptions, such as Ortega Court.
The former site of an elementary school, Ortega Court is now an enclave of fashionable larger, more expensive homes.
Ramos Park, a 4.4-acre spread of grass,
picnic tables and play structures, still serves as a gathering place for families as well as the community, and is the host location of the annual Adobe Meadow neighborhood block party, held Labor Day weekend.
Originally held on a section of Corina Way, the annual party was opened to the entire Adobe Meadow neighborhood in 2005, and moved to the park the following year. The party serves a dual purpose of uniting the community and maintaining the neighborhood association’s presence.
“We take care of ‘legal business’ by electing new officers, and (the party) caps the summer,” said Gerard Wen, past-president of the Adobe Meadow Neighborhood Association and resident since 1980.
Nearby Meadow Park is bounded by Adobe Creek, Bibbits Drive, Charleston Road and Grove Avenue.
“Our NA sort of coalesced over an issue with a single-story overlay, about eight to nine years ago, which is still in effect,” said Mike McMahon, president of the Meadow Park Residents Association, and resident since 1975.
— Kristen Barta
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Palo Verde Kids’ Club, 3450 Louis Road
fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield Road
liBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)
loCation: between Loma Verde Avenue and East Meadow Drive, Middlefield and West Bayshore roads
neiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Palo Verde Residents Association, Boris Foelsch, [email protected], http://pvra.jot.com/WikiHome
paRkS (neaRBy): Don Jesus Ramos Park, 800 E. Meadow Drive; Henry W. Seale Park, 3100 Stockton Place
poSt offiCe: Main, 2085 E. Bayshore Road
pUBliC SCHoolS: Palo Verde Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High School
SHoppinG: Midtown Shopping Center, Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue; also Middlefield Road at Loma Verde Avenue
Median 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,257,000 ($967,750-$1,950,000)
HoMeS Sold: 28
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Covenant Children’s Center, 670 E. Meadow Drive; Sunshine Preschool Montessori, 3711 Ross Road
fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield Road
loCation: bounded by East Meadow Drive, Fabian Way, Montrose Avenue, Middlefield Road
neiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Meadow Park Residents Association, Mike McMahon, president, 650-493-7392, www.geocities.com/meadowparkpa/; Adobe Meadow Neighborhood Association, Ken Allen, president, [email protected]
paRkS: Don Jesus Ramos Park, 800 E. Meadow Drive; Mitchell Park, 650 E. Meadow Drive
poSt offiCe: Main, 2085 E. Bayshore Road
pRiVate SCHool: Challenger School, 3880 Middlefield Road
pUBliC SCHoolS: Fairmeadow Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Henry M. Gunn High School
SHoppinG: Charleston Center, Midtown Shopping Center
Median 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,260,000 ($965,000-$1,460,000)
HoMeS Sold: 14
Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $740,000 ($359,900-$855,000)
CondoS Sold: 23
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bArrOn PArk
FAIrMeAdOw
The days of summer ice-cream socials held to welcome new neighbors, spring gatherings in the park and winter parades complete with marching band and donkeys, have gone by the wayside — unless you live in the community of Barron Park.
Unlike most Silicon Valley neighborhoods Barron Park hastens back to the era of a simpler time, where family and community were rooted in the hearts and minds of its residents.
“It feels like the center of the world,” Gary Breitbard, a resident since 1972, said.
“The rural area atmosphere, wide variety of houses and great school district” top the list of reasons Ken Tani, former president of the Barron Park Association (BPA), chose to call this community home. But the reason he remains is “the multi-cultural caliber of residents.”
Barron Park’s history dates back to 1925 when it was laid out as a 62-lot Santa Clara County subdivision by Colonel Sebastian Jones, along El Camino Real, La Selva Drive and Barron Avenue. Between the 1920s and ’30s agriculture was its
mainstay. Fruit orchards could be seen from El Cerrito to Encina Grande Park, and on the land where Gunn High School is located, dairy cattle grazed.
Even newer residents of the neighborhood feel a sense of history. Anne Maggioncalda, a resident since 2006, feels the older generation of Barron Park “adds a lot of history, and a sense of commitment to the community.”
Another relative newcomer to Barron Park is Francoise Lang. “It has a secluded, country feel,” Francoise said, mentioning the main attraction for the Langs.
Equally attractive was the ease of commuting. The Langs’ children, and husband Burt, bike to school and work. According to Francoise, it will be “quite some time” before the family considers moving anyplace else.
Bol Park on Laguna Avenue is where residents gather each spring to celebrate May Fete, an annual event based on long-ago May Day celebrations. The Fete even includes a large May pole, built by longtime resident, Paul Edwards.
— Kimberly Ewertz
Flying in from San Jose Airport, Mary Lautner spotted a distinctive neighborhood below with residential streets laid out in concentric circles. “That’s where I live!” she remembers exclaiming when she recognized Fairmeadow.
Joseph Eichler designed the circular streets in the early 1950s to reduce traffic in his tract of modern, affordable homes, but now they also serve as the neighborhood’s icon.
The circular pattern is one of Fairmeadow’s advantages, according to Paul Seaver, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1968. “There is very little through traffic,” he said.
East Charleston Road, East Meadow Drive, Alma Street and Mitchell Park border the neighborhood of 300 Eichler homes. Residents enjoy close proximity to Mitchell Park, a community center and four schools, public and private.
Fairmeadow’s walkability is one of its most popular attributes. Len Filppu said that walking to school with his elementary school-aged children gives him “a neighborhood feeling, and gives our kids a sense of neighborhood. Instead of seeing
the world whizzing by through car windows, they can kick a stone down the street on the way to school and wave to their classmates doing the same.”
Amina Anwar and her husband Omair Farooqui, who moved from Hayward onto Roosevelt Circle in 2003, were attracted to Fairmeadow for the schools, but it was the “community feeling of Palo Alto and the circles” that really appealed.
“Initially, there were not too many younger families on our street, but a lot of families who’d been there 30, 40 years,” Anwar said, adding that “they were very welcoming.”
Later, three or four other families with young children moved in. “People tend to stay for another generation,” she said.
In true neighborhood fashion, Ramona Circle residents host annual block parties. Kids play basketball, skateboard, jump in the bouncy tent and draw in chalk on the closed-off street, said Filppu, who added that he enjoys the potluck food and mingling at such events. Other blocks put on a “circle party” every year, host Halloween trick-or-treating events, and congregate for holiday caroling.
— Veronica Sudekum
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Barron Park Childcare Co-op, [email protected]; Barron Park Playgroup, Beth Delson, [email protected]; Barron Park Children’s Center, 800 Barron Ave.; Barron Park Preschool, 3650 La Donna Ave.; Barron Park Kids’ Club, 800 Barron Ave.; Juana Briones Kids’ Club, 4100 Orme St.fiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: College Terrace branch, 2300 Wellesley St.; Mitchell Park branch, 3700 Middlefield RoadloCation: roughly between Chimalus and Maybell avenues, El Camino Real and Gunn High School fieldsneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Lynnie Melena, president, 650-493-2135, [email protected], www.bpaonline.orgpaRkS: Bol Park, Laguna Avenue between Barron and Matadero avenues; Juana Briones Park, 609 Maybell Ave.poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Barron Park and Juana Briones elementary schools, Terman Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: San Antonio Shopping Center, California Avenue Median 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,244,750 ($682,500-$2,969,250)HoMeS Sold: 26 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $705,000 ($648,000-$711,000)CondoS Sold: 3
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Besse Bolton Kids' Club, 500 E. Meadow Drive; Covenant Children’s Center, 670 E. Meadow Drive; Ellen Thacher Children’s Center, 505 E. Charleston Road; Hoover Kids’ Club; 445 E. Charleston Road; Redwood Enrichment Center, 445 E. Charleston Road; Palo Alto Infant Toddler Center, 4111 Alma St.fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: bordered by East Charleston Road, East Meadow Drive, Alma Street and Mitchell ParkneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Len Filppu, president, 650-857-1031paRK: Mitchell Park, 600 E. Meadow DrivepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHool: Challenger School, 3880 Middlefield RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: Fairmeadow and Hoover elementary schools, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG (neaRBy): Charleston CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,120,250 ($1,052,000-$1,125,000)HoMeS Sold: 4
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ChArlestOn MeAdOws
VenturA
John Hofer picked his Palo Alto neighborhood based on its access to the school system when he moved his family to Charleston Meadows in 1987. Over the years, Hofer, current president of the community association, decided that it was the residents that made the neighborhood feel like home.
“I grew up in Menlo Park when it really had a small-town atmosphere. This neighborhood has that same feeling, along with a diverse population and age,” Hofer said.
The tree-lined streets, parks and ubiquitous single-story wood-frame homes of Charleston Meadows attract families with children.
“When my son was younger, he would often go off to the Robles Park with his friends, feeling very independent and unsupervised. Little did he know that we were, of course, peeking around watching after him. This is a pretty safe, intimate neighborhood,” he said.
The neighborhood association holds community-building events at least once annually, to bring residents together and to raise their awareness about the current challenges affecting Charleston Meadows,
most recently meeting at Robles Park for the annual elections.
“Usually, our event coincides with our annual association meeting, but we’ve also had block parties, ice cream socials and informational gatherings to bring residents up to speed on city-wide or neighborhood issues,” Hofer said.
Part of what Charleston Meadows aims to protect is the small-town feel that residents say inspires neighborliness.
With new families coming in and Robles Park revived by the sounds of children playing, Charleston Meadows has undergone a Renaissance, retired schoolteacher Merry Edwardson, who in 1955 moved with her family into an Eichler by the park, said.
“We have a lot more younger families moving in, which is refreshing for people of my vintage. We’ve more than welcomed them with open arms and hope that they make the neighborhood a home as much as we have,” she said.
For newer families, this welcome has inspired neighborly gestures in kind. A cooperative spirit has drawn people to share the fruits of their yards with the community around them.
— Sarah Trauben
In 1988 Magdalena Cabrera was searching for a place to call home for her and her two children. She chose a house in the Ventura neighborhood because “it was the least expensive house in Palo Alto on the market at the time,” she said.
Situated between Page Mill Road and West Meadow Drive, and El Camino Real and Alma Street, Ventura has the feeling of a secluded Palo Alto neighborhood, yet it is still near shopping and restaurants on California Avenue and El Camino Real. And, for the musically inclined, Gryphon Stringed Instruments sits on the corner of Park Boulevard and Lambert Avenue.
While Cabrera chose the neighborhood for convenience, she said one of many aspects she has come to appreciate is the socially and racially diverse backgrounds of her neighbors.
“It’s a modest neighborhood, we’re not fancy here,” Cabrera, who runs the Leaping Lizards Nature Awareness Preschool from her house, said. “We have everything here, from African American, Asian American, Indian American and Latino American. And I love that the park is right across the
street.” Colin Kent, originally from New York,
moved to Ventura in 2002. When he came across a townhouse on Pepper Avenue, Kent found what he said is the perfect, convenient location for him.
“It’s still close enough to downtown and definitely within walking distance of California Avenue,” he said. “I also love that you can get to Highways 280 and 101 quickly.”
Ventura’s layout of primarily one-story cottages came to fruition mostly after World War II, with the GI Bill offering lower interest rates for returning veterans.
Changes to the neighborhood have brought several apartment buildings and the occasional two-story home to the area.
Not unlike many neighborhoods, Ventura has had its ups and downs. Cabrera said
“In the past there have been certain elements of the neighborhood, like the park, that have been a challenge,” she said. “But there is an overall feeling that the community will pull together to make sure everything stays safe. I feel very safe here.”
— Susan Robles
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Growing Tree Preschool, 450 W. Charleston RoadfiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield Road; No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: bounded by West Meadow Drive, Alma Street, Adobe Creek and El Camino Real neiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: John Hofer, president, [email protected], www.charlestonmeadows.orgpaRkS: Don Secundino Robles Park, 4116 Park Blvd.; Monroe Mini Park (nearby), Monroe Drive and Miller AvenuepoSt offiCe: Alma Shoe Repair (for sending only, no receiving) 3666b EL Camino Real; Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Juana Briones Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: San Antonio Shopping Center, Piazza’s Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,327,500 ($924,000-$2,100,000)HoMeS Sold: 16Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $883,000 ($325,000-$1,230,000)CondoS Sold: 9
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Country Day Little School, 3990 Ventura Court; Heffalump Cooperative Nursery, 3990 Ventura Court; Leaping Lizards Nature Awareness Preschool, 650-858-0355, www.leapinglizardspreschool.com; Sojourner Truth Child Development Center, 3990 Ventura Court fiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero Road liBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: bounded by Oregon Expressway, Alma Street, West Meadow Drive and El Camino RealpaRK: Boulware Park, 410 Fernando Ave.; Ventura Community Center, 3990 Ventura Court poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave. pUBliC SCHoolS: Barron Park Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High School SHoppinG: California Avenue, Charleston Center, El Camino RealMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $825,000 ($690,000-$905,000)HoMeS Sold: 12 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $649,000 ($435,000-$779,000)CondoS Sold: 5
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ChArlestOn gArdens
the greenhOuse
Drawn to the wide and safe streets back in 1966, Doug and the late Margie Hornbeck found Charleston Gardens an area ideal for raising young children.
Although surrounded by three busy streets, Charleston, Middlefield and San Antonio roads, Charleston Gardens is a serene area. On a mid-day stroll around the tree-shaded neighborhood the loudest sound heard is birds chirping, and the streets are nearly free of cars. Portable basketball hoops are common, with children often seen playing on late afternoons.
The Hornbecks were also drawn to the nearby schools and local amenities, many located on San Antonio or Middlefield Road. Doug, who taught at Cubberley High School on Middlefield Road before it closed and became a community center, loved that his work was so close. They also didn’t have to go far to find a church, since there are many along Middlefield Road.
“We walk everywhere,” said Esther Nio, who walks with her kids to schools, parks and shopping.
Nio, who moved to Charleston Gardens in 1999, said it was nice to live somewhere where her kids have some independence.
Along with the annual block party, Nio appreciates the day-to-day relations with her neighbors. “It’s a small neighborhood so you know everyone well,” she said. “When you go on vacation, you tell your neighbors and they will keep an eye on your house, get your mail or water the garden.
“It’s pretty centralized to everything you need,” said Richard Twoy, who moved to the neighborhood in late 2007. “Piazza’s is just a block away and Highway 101, which I take to work each day, is close by.”
Residents stay connected with e-mails on news concerning the neighborhood and the annual block party, which includes a barbecue and games. The block party, which happens most years, is also a fun way many neighbors share their cultural backgrounds by preparing ethnic foods.
“We can see who’s around and get to know other people,” Twoy said.
— Monica Guzman
The Greenhouse, located at 777 San Antonio Road, between Middlefield Road and Fabian Way in south Palo Alto, has been attracting residents with its calm, green atmosphere and convenient location since 1975.
Developed by the Alpha Land Company, the complex was named for the greenhouses once owned by Bell Nurseries, after plans to build a K-Mart on the site fell through in the early 1970s. In 1978, 88 additional units were built in the same style on the adjoining land. The new condominiums, located at 765 San Antonio Road, came to be called The Greenhouse II.
When the original complex opened 33 years ago, the price for a unit was $34,950, but by 2010 prices had risen roughly 15 times. Today, 30 to 40 percent of Greenhouse residents are renters, compared with 25 percent in 1975.
“The developer ... made very generous use of the property’s open space,” said 30-year resident Bruce Campbell, about one of the features that first attracted him to
the complex in 1980. “It’s hard to imagine a development with so much room left for lawns, landscaping and greenery being built today,” he added.
Size of units and location remain a big draw to The Greenhouse, and now residents include single adults, young families and married couples whose children have gone on to college or homes of their own.
“Many people are attracted to ‘condo living’ because in a way, you get the best of both worlds. You get the comfort and privacy of a home, with little of the responsibility for upkeep,” said Paul Lufkin Jr., vice president of the Greenhouse II Homeowners Association.
The Greenhouse’s relatively large open spaces and carefully manicured lawns set it apart from other apartment and condominium complexes in the area. Many windows and patios sport planters and potted flowers. A par course, or fitness trail, encircles the complex and attracts residents from casual walkers to fitness enthusiasts.
“The easy access to shopping is a plus for everyone here. You see a lot of people walking and riding bicycles,” said Ralph Cahn, treasurer of the Palo Alto Greenhouse Homeowners Association.
— Alexander Papoulias
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Children’s Pre-School Center, 4000 Middlefield Road, T1; Good Neighbor Montessori, 4000 Middlefield Road, K4; Young Fives and Pre-school Family, 4120 Middlefield Road; T’enna Preschool (OFJCC), 3921 Fabian Way fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: bounded by Middlefield Road, East Charleston Road, Montrose Avenue, Sutherland DriveneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: George Browning, [email protected]: Mitchell Park, 600 East Meadow DrivepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.; Main, 2085 E. Bayshore RoadpRiVate SCHoolS: Challenger School, 3880 Middlefield Road; Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, 450 San Antonio Road; Kehillah Jewish High School, 3900 Fabian Way; Palo Alto Prep School, 4000 Middlefield RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: Fairmeadow or Hoover elementary schools, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: Charleston CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,371,500 ($1,045,000-$1,698,000)HoMeS Sold: 2
FACtsCHildCaRe and pRe-SCHoolS (neaRBy): Peninsula Day Care Center, 525 San Antonio RoadfiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: 777 and 765 San Antonio RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Palo Alto Greenhouse Homeowners Association, Ralph Cahn, treasurer, 650-858-1012; The Compass Management Group Inc., 650-563-9900paRk (neaRBy): Mitchell Park, 600 E. Meadow DrivepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Fairmeadow or Hoover elementary schools, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: San Antonio Shopping Center, Charleston Plaza, Costco WarehouseMedian 2010 Condo pRiCe: $514,500 ($490,000-$580,000) CondoS Sold: 7
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greenMeAdOw
greendell/wAlnut grOVe
Tucked into a small nook behind the Cubberley Community Center there’s a small picture-book community replete with tree-lined cul-de-sacs and Fourth of July parades. Even the architecture is a throwback to a time when families ate evening meals together and kids biked to neighborhood schools.
Greenmeadow is a collection of 270 homes built by Joseph Eichler, running between Creekside Drive and Ferne Avenue to the north and south and Nelson Drive and Ben Lomond Drive on the east and west. Originally completed in 1953, it was built as a cohesive, almost autonomous neighborhood, with houses receding back into cul-de-sacs off a few main drags.
In 2005, the neighborhood was endowed with a place on the National Register of Historic Places and, with that, the restriction to remain true to the “Eichler-look.” The city had already placed a moratorium on second stories.
The inclusion of a two-car garage on the broad façade of the houses belies the rather spacious interiors of these homes. They are geometric and unusual inside; the architects were able to notch out living space in unexpected places.
Eichler’s celebration of the outdoors is reflected in the community as a whole. With Bay Area landscape designer Thomas Church, they centered the community around a neighborhood park, pool and community center.
Lisa Knox and her family moved onto Ben Lomond Drive in 2006 from a suburb of Pittsburgh.
“I can’t think of a community that’s closer, with more activities,” she said. Activities range from yoga to morning coffees, game night and an Eichler birthday party.
“Everyone is very involved,” she said.Today the homeowners’ association,
called the Greenmeadow Community Association, or GMCA, has committees and sub-committees that organize social events, manage the area and welcome new residents.
A recent influx of youth has livened up some of the neighborhood events, including the Labor Day picnic, the Halloween party and the Fourth of July parade.
“Right in the middle of Silicon Valley, we have this intimate, small-town feel; I love it,” Knox said.
— Megan Rawlins
Edel Young, a resident of Greendell, described neighborhood creation as an evolutionary event. Boundaries can change as groups of people become friends and associates, she said. Greendell is an example of a neighborhood formed informally by the neighbors.
Young keeps and updates the Greendell map, which has phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the names of everyone on Ferne and Dake avenues.
With Greendell, Greenmeadow and Walnut Grove all occupying the area enclosed by Alma Street, San Antonio Road, Middlefield Road and East Charleston Road, outsiders could mistake them for one large neighborhood, especially since Eichlers dominate the area. Greendell and Walnut Grove residents can become associate members, which allows them to use the swimming pool, according to the Greenmeadow Community Association website.
Defining Greendell’s boundaries is difficult. Even the origin of the name remains a mystery to residents — the uncertainty on whether the tract or the school had the name first.
The boundaries include the tract of four-bedroom Eichlers, built in 1956,
on Ferne Avenue, Dake Avenue and San Antonio Road, said Wendy Ng, a resident of Greendell and a professor at San Jose State University.
“However, our neighborhood map has included homes on Dake Avenue and Christopher Court that are not Eichlers,” Ng said.
Years ago, whether children attended Ohlone and Greendell school was thought of as a dividing line between the neighborhoods, Young said. Today, all the children attend Fairmeadow Elementary School.
Walnut Grove, a former walnut orchard, resides in the northwest corner partitioned by Adobe Creek; a bridge allows people to walk or bike to Greenmeadow.
News clippings indicate the neighborhood began as a tract developed by Burke & Wyatt in 1953. The company had plans to develop a $3.5 million tract with contemporary houses ranging from $16,000 to $17,000.
Shirley Nanevicz, a resident of Walnut Grove, said she wasn’t sure if the company went broke or gave up, “but Eichler had finished the area where he (Burke & Wyatt) had started.”
— Richard To
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Montessori School of Los Altos, 303 Parkside Drive; Palo Alto Infant Toddler Center, 4111 Alma St.; Crescent Park Child Development Center (Peekaboo), 4161 Alma St.; Redwood Enrichment Center, 445 E. Charleston Road fiRe Station: No. 4, 3600 Middlefield RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: between Creekside Drive and Ferne Avenue, Nelson Drive and Ben Lomond DriveneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Greenmeadow Community Association, 650-494-3157, www.greenmeadow.orgpaRkS: Greenmeadow Park (private); Mitchell Park (nearby), 600 East Meadow DrivepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHoolS (neaRBy): Palo Alto Prep School, 4000 Middlefield Road; Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, 450 and 470 San Antonio RoadpUBliC SCHoolS: Fairmeadow Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: Charleston Center, San Antonio Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,415,500 ($1,279,000-$1,550,000)HoMeS Sold: 6 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $667,500 ($650,000-$685,000) CondoS Sold: 2
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Montessori School of Los Altos, 303 Parkside Drive; Palo Alto Infant Toddler Center, 4111 Alma St.; Crescent Park Child Development Center (Peekaboo), 4161 Alma St.; Peninsula Day Care Center, 525 San Antonio Road; Redwood Enrichment Center, 445 E. Charleston Road loCation: Greendell: between Ferne Avenue, San Antonio Avenue and Mackay Drive; Walnut Grove: between Charleston Road and Adobe Creek, Alma Street and Nelson DriveneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Walnut Grove Homeowners Association, Tom Crystal, president, 650-493-3276 paRkS: Greenmeadow Park (private); Mitchell Park (nearby), 600 East Meadow Drive poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHoolS (neaRBy): Palo Alto Prep School, 4000 Middlefield Road; Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, 450 and 470 San Antonio Road pUBliC SCHoolS: Fairmeadow Elementary School, J.L. Stanford Middle School, Gunn High School SHoppinG: Charleston Center, San Antonio Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: Greendell: $1,080,000 ($935,000-$1,410,000); Walnut Grove: $1,242,500 ($970,225-$1,310,000)HoMeS Sold: Greendell: 6; Walnut Grove: 4Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: near Greendell: $670,000 ($478,000-$931,000)CondoS Sold: near Greendell: 5
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When Bill and Hollie Halpin decided to leave their home in San Jose for Palo Alto, they searched meticulously for a community where they could settle down permanently and raise their three young children. After scouting local neighborhoods, interviewing residents, and interviewing the police for crime statistics, they settled on Monroe Park.
“We wanted a place where the kids could play and meet neighbors, and Monroe circle is perfect for that,” Hollie Halpin said. “The goal was to get into a neighborhood, a school district, a community, and bring the kids all the way through.”
Having moved into their two-story, four-bedroom home in mid-February, the Halpins are still getting to know Monroe Park and its surroundings.
The park itself, a small, gently sloping plot marked by a swing-set and a pair of benches, serves as a centerpiece for the neighborhood and is the popular destination of many a late-afternoon and evening stroll. The Halpins, who live nearby, have taken to going there every night after dinner. They often encounter other denizens of Monroe Park, who are all too happy to help the couple become better acquainted with the area.
Framed by Adobe Creek to the west, El Camino Real to the south, Del Medio Avenue to the east and railroad tracks to the north, Monroe Park is divided along a zigzagging northeast-southwest axis that distinguishes Palo Alto residents from their Mountain View neighbors. As 36-year veteran Linnea Wickstrom puts it, Monroe
Park is “a border state.”Wickstrom estimates that approximately
250 houses occupy Monroe Park, with 110 on the Palo Alto side. Small lots typically go for $800,000 to $900,000, while bigger houses often sell for $1.6 million to $1.8 million, said Wickstrom, who is president of the local homeowners’ association.
Asked to describe the character of their neighborhood, the word residents most often invoke is “eclectic.”
A stroll around the Monroe Drive loop reveals quaint bungalows nestled beside towering two-story Mission-style homes, in a subdued, earthy palette of greens, browns, beiges and teals. Small details, like wood-paneled garage doors, bright window frames and rustic roof shingles, lend each home a distinct and quietly surprising air.
Nancy and Randy Popp moved to the neighborhood from Mountain View 15 years ago, expecting to only stay for five — but the neighborhood charmed them, the couple said. They decided to stay and raise their three young children in Monroe Park.
“There’s a mix of new and old, it’s not cookie cutter,” Nancy said of the neighborhood’s juxtaposition of housing models.
“The neighborhood’s great, people are friendly,” said Randy, adding, “The park is a really good neighbor. ... It’s a catalyst for social interaction.”
He recalled an event that, in his mind, typifies the character of the neighborhood — the day his children teamed up with kids next door to sell lemonade by the road,
stopping bikers, drivers and pedestrians alike, who indulged their entrepreneurial urges.
“It’s a kind of old Americana. It’s been very nice for me,” he said.
Considering the proximity of Monroe Park to the hectic climate of El Camino Real, that kind of full-bodied neighborhood milieu comes as a pleasant surprise to outsiders. But residents who live nearest to El Camino receive frequent reminders of its influence.
Many were concerned with increased traffic and parking overflow when plans to replace the Palo Alto Bowl emerged, and a series of negotiations ensued. As it turned out, Palo Alto Bowl and the Thai Garden restaurant got a reprieve, with a new lease signed through 2014.
But change is something neighborhood old-timers are all too familiar with. Knud Jensen, who moved to Monroe Park in 1959 with his wife Ellen, remembered when Monroe Park was lined with a few small homes and empty lots. He has watched neighbors come and go, and houses grow into gargantuan, impressive structures.
“The whole neighborhood has changed,” he said, adding, “It has improved.”
— Aimee Miles
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Children’s Corner, 97 Hillview Ave., Los Altos; Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, 450 San Antonio Road, Palo Alto; Growing Tree Montessori Preschool, 450 W. Charleston Road, Palo Alto fiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: bounded by Adobe Creek, El Camino Real and Mountain View borders (near Silva Avenue)neiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Monroe Park Neighborhood Association, Linnea Wickstrom, president, [email protected]: Monroe Mini Park, Monroe Drive and Miller AvenuepoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Los Altos School District — Santa Rita School, Egan Junior High School; Mtn. View-Los Altos Union High School District — Los Altos High School SHoppinG: San Antonio Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,359,000 ($1,125,000-$1,625,000)HoMeS Sold: 4 Median 2010 Condo pRiCe: $555,000CondoS Sold: 1
MOnrOe PArk
Veronica Weber
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The sun is my sourceof inspiration.
Every time I feel the warmth of the sun on my face I’m reminded
what a powerful source of energy it is. As both a Palo Alto
resident and employee at the City of Palo Alto Utilities, I get
to share my enthusiasm for solar energy by taking people through
the process, start to finish.
I guess that’s why I’ve become the solar guru. Even for people who can’t get a full solar electric (PV)
or water heating system, I can find energy efficiency solutions. Learn
more about our solar programs, incentives and rebates at
CityofPaloAlto.org/PVpartners
—Lindsay Joye Marketing Engineer
www.cityofpaloalto.org (650) 329–2241
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A mother and her daughters sell Girl Scout cookies to their neighbors, walking door-to-door through several cul-de-sac streets that make up Palo Alto Orchards. This is the second generation the neighborhood has seen grow up and most of the cookie-cutter tract houses that were built after World War II have been remodeled to contemporary aesthetics.
Darcy Huston, the mother who accompanies her Girl Scouts, moved to Palo Alto Orchards in 2004 with her husband to raise three girls. The Hustons came for the stellar public schools and for the neighborhood’s sense of community; they wanted to be able to sell cookies to neighbors they actually know.
The Huston girls can play in the streets during the summer, and ride bikes around the neighborhood with their parents, but their mom Darcy worries about them walking to school alone because Palo Alto Orchards is wedged between bustling Arastradero Road and El Camino Real.
Henry Lum, a resident of Palo Alto Orchards, worked diligently with the city’s Charleston/Arastradero advisory group to convince the city to put in a crosswalk on Arastradero Road to provide a safe way to connect Palo Alto Orchards to nearby Juana Briones Park. The city has already reduced the lanes on Arastradero Road from four to three and added turn lanes, and plans are underway to add a crosswalk
at Arastradero and Clemo Avenue, according to John Spiller, neighborhood association president.
Misao Sakamoto and her late husband also raised three children in Palo Alto Orchards, but they did so during a simpler time when parents could rest easily when their children walked to school.
“When my children were little, the mothers sat out in the yard watching the children playing in the street while the fathers went to work. The children were outside playing with each other and walking to school together,” Sakamoto said. “The mothers too had a chance to socialize with each other because unlike today’s mothers, we were not working. It was a very peaceful type of living.”
The Sakamotos moved to Palo Alto Orchards fresh out of UC Berkeley student housing, where they lived while Calvin Sakamoto was a student. The community was still surrounded by walnut orchards then. The Sakamotos joined many former GIs who came to raise their children in one-story homes priced under $10,000 on streets with names such as Suzanne and Lorabelle, after the original developers McKellar and Kelly’s wives.
“This was a very nice place to raise children and it still is, but lifestyle has changed. I don’t see as many kids outside on the street,” Sakamoto said.
Half a century later, young professionals
starting families jump at opportunities to live in Palo Alto Orchards. “As soon as a house goes on the market, somebody with kids moves in inevitably because they want to be in the school district,” Huston said of Palo Alto Orchard’s evolving demographic. “Older folks are moving out and new families are moving in.”
Sakamoto values neighborhood interaction and for three years she has invited neighborhood children, their parents and their grandparents to gather around the piano in her family room for Christmas music recitals. Pianists and violinists of all skill level, a single clarinet player and a bassoon soloist bring their instruments and a platter of goodies to her house, and the hostess said they are all very willing to perform and participate.
Sakamoto has seen many neighborhood families grow up. “I love to see the projects of these little children, their aspirations and their accomplishments. I value those relationships where there’s mutual dependencies.”
— Lillian Bixler
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Palo Alto Montessori School, 575 Arastradero Road; Young Life Christian Pre-School, 687 Arastradero Road fiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero Road liBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: includes McKellar Lane, Suzanne Court, Suzanne Drive, Kelly Way, Lorabelle Court and Arastradero RoadneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: John Spiller, [email protected] paRkS: Juana Briones Park, 609 Maybell Ave.; Terman Park, 655 Arastradero Road poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHool: Bowman International School, 4000 Terman Road pUBliC SCHoolS: Juana Briones Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High School SHoppinG: El Camino Real, San Antonio Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,080,000 ($1,040,000-$2,050,000) HoMeS Sold: 4Median 2010 Condo pRiCe (neaRBy): $425,000CondoS Sold: 1
PAlO AltO OrChArds
Whitney D
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green ACres
greAter MIrAndA
If there is one thing that you hear over and over from the residents of Green Acres, it is how safe they feel in this cozy neighborhood.
Green Acres actually consists of two main areas: Green Acres I on the south side of Arastradero Road, which was built first in the 1950s, shortly followed by Green Acres II, on the north side of Arastradero Road.
Joan Sakaldasis, 70, who has been living in Green Acres I for more than four decades, said she feels comfortable knowing she could knock at anyone’s door if she needed help.
“It’s very safe here, I usually go for a walk every morning. It is also a really good place to walk your dog.”
Standing outside her house on Los Palos Avenue, Sakaldasis finds it easy to socialize with her neighbors. The cars that pass by are often filled with her friends smiling and waving to her. That neighborhood atmosphere is one of the many attractions for new residents looking to move into the area.
A big draw to the neighborhood is
proximity to both public and private schools, including an elementary, middle and high school, and an international school on Terman Drive.
In recent years the neighborhood has increased its ethnic diversity, as many families of Chinese, Indian and other descent have been drawn to the sought-after school district.
“I was just looking for a school district for my kids but after living here, I love the community and small neighborhood feel,” said Corey Levens, 54, a father of three who moved in 2003.
The Green Acres Improvement Association, which meets with residents four times a year, has been actively helping to maintain the neighborhood and foster good community relations since 1952.
The association gets neighbors together at parties and events including a Christmas party in December, an ice-cream social for summer and a potluck each fall.
— Piyawan Rungsuk
“It’s tucked away, so it has a sort of a rural atmosphere yet it is part of all the amenities of Palo Alto,” said Jackie Berman, who has lived in Greater Miranda since 1970, said.
Located between Alta Mesa Memorial Park, Adobe Creek (which separates Palo Alto from Los Altos) and Foothill Expressway, the area was formerly an orchard. Miranda Avenue, which used to run through the nearby cemetery, now connects the three cul-de-sacs — Arroyo Court, Miranda Green and Moana Court. Today’s traffic is mostly in and out of the neighborhood.
The Greater Miranda land was originally purchased by the Mexican-American pioneer Dona Juana Briones de Miranda for $300 in 1850. It wasn’t until 1959 that the area was annexed to the city of Palo Alto. Development in the area didn’t really begin until the 1950s and gradually has grown to the neighborhood it is today.
Because the neighborhood wasn’t built as one large development, the
houses and yards are individual. Many of the residents attribute the peace-and-quiet ambiance of the 55 homes to their proximity to Alta Mesa Memorial Park. Occasionally wildlife finds a way into neighbors’ backyards, including deer, a bobcat and a fox — a very appealing aspect especially with the Adobe Creek being close-by, Don Nielsen, president of the Miranda Neighborhood Association, said.
The neighbors all know each other well, as many have lived there for years or decades. The neighborhood association has organized several projects, from getting Miranda Avenue repaved to organizing emergency preparedness. Greater Miranda is a “little more like family than some neighborhoods,” Nielsen said.
Steve Tadelis moved into the neighborhood with his wife Irit and two sons in June 2006.
Even before they completely unpacked, they were invited to the July 4 Jelly Bean Olympics on Miranda
Green, which is celebrated annually with outdoor games and a potluck.
“It’s a good way to meet more families, and it has this nice neighborly feel to it,” he said of the event.
— Johanna Toivio and Kris Young
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS: Palo Alto Montessori School, 575 Arastradero Road; Whistlestop Child Development Center, 3801 Miranda Ave. No. T6B; Young Life Christian Pre-School, 687 Arastradero RoadfiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: Green Acres I: Arastradero Road to Glenbrook Drive, Los Palos to Pomona avenues; Green Acres II: Maybell Avenue to Arastradero Road, Coulombe Drive to Georgia AvenueneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: (Green Acres I) Nina T. Bell, [email protected]; (Green Acres II) Betsy Allyn, 650-493-8859 paRkS: Juana Briones Park, 609 Maybell Ave.; Terman Park, 655 Arastradero RoadpoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 365 Cambridge Ave. pRiVate SCHool: Bowman International School, 4000 Terman DrivepUBliC SCHoolS: Juana Briones Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High School SHoppinG: El Camino Real, San Antonio Shopping Center, Downtown Los AltosMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,392,500 ($840,000-$2,400,000)HoMeS Sold: 10
FACtsCHildCaRe and pReSCHoolS (neaRBy): Whistle Stop Child Development Center, 3801 Miranda Ave., No. T6BfiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: Miranda Avenue, Arroyo Court, Miranda Green and Moana CourtneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Don Nielson, 650-941-2429paRkS (neaRBy): Terman Park, 655 Arastradero RoadpoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pRiVate SCHool: Bowman International School, 4000 Terman DrivepUBliC SCHoolS: Juana Briones Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: El Camino Real, San Antonio Shopping CenterMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $1,385,000HoMeS Sold: 1
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PAlO AltO hIlls
esther ClArk PArk
Life in Palo Alto can be fast-paced, and it can be difficult to find open space, wildlife or nature. But, take a drive up to the Palo Alto Hills, and you can find all of that and then some.
Palo Alto Hills is located above Interstate 280 and consists of long, windy roads that lead up to its 78 households. The neighborhood is quiet and diverse with long trails perfect for biking, jogging or hiking.
“We’re a family of runners so what really drew us to the neighborhood was the privacy and easy access to the trails,” said Jay Weber, who moved to the Hills with his wife and two daughters in August 2009.
The nature and open space is what has prompted many other residents to move their families to the neighborhood.
“I love that it’s so much like the East Coast,” said Marion Recine, who moved from upstate New York 39 years ago. “All the hills and oak trees remind me so much of being back home.”
With the neighborhood being so
secluded, it is a peaceful place for residents to get away from their hectic work life. Nonetheless, some feel that it’s too isolated. With the nearest grocery store being almost five miles away, residents need to learn to adjust to traveling long distances to get places.
Despite the quiet and seclusion, there is a sense of community: An annual Christmastime get-together is organized by the Palo Alto Hills Neighborhood Association (PAHNA) to bring the neighbors closer together.
Mark Nadim, PAHNA president, has lived in the Hills for 24 years and does all that he can to make sure the community stays connected. The neighborhood events he plans are held at the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club, the focal point of the neighborhood.
That’s also where the neighborhood is supposed to go in case of an emergency.
“They’re our refuge,” Nadim said. “They’ve made it clear that if anything happens, they’re here for us.”
— Carolyn Copeland
Large oak trees, wild animals and uninterrupted landscapes define Esther Clark Park, an open 21-acre plot of land located in the Palo Alto hills.
Rich Spanish villas, old-style ranch houses and wide Mediterranean-style mansions run down the three main roads of the neighborhood by the same name. Old Adobe Road, Old Trace Road and Manuela Avenue branch off from Arastradero Road to wind around the park. All houses receive a stellar view of the park, regardless of where they are located.
The park was sold to the city in 1965 by Esther Clark, the first female pediatrician and founder of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic and the Children’s Health Council.
Adrienne Oliff’s ranch-style house on Old Trace Road has been a staple of the neighborhood since 1973. She likes how the area manages to be secluded from the downtown areas and yet is convenient enough for her to get what she needs in nearby Los Altos.
“Though the neighbors are one acre away from one another, they still watched out for each other,” she said.
Robert Creasey has lived on Old Adobe Road since 1956, even before it received its name from Juana Briones’ 1844 adobe ranch house. The many oak trees that surround the park are also due to the generosity of his father, who planted them more than 25 years ago.
“As I walk outside, I see these trees 30 feet high,” he said.
Marilyn Stocker has lived on Mockingbird Lane since her house was first built in 1973. As one of the original four neighbors on the street, her wooden-framed ranch-style home has overlooked the neighborhood on its hill for years.
Many families were drawn to the neighborhood’s close proximity to Nixon Elementary School. Getting to school was literally a walk through the park. Stocker’s family played host to annual skating parties. While the children’s departure from the area has left a number of empty nesters in its wake, the friendly nature of the neighbors still remains.
“The neighbors call it a tranquil paradise,” Oliff said.
— Casey Scheld
FACtsfiRe Station: No. 8, Foothills Park, 3300 Page Mill Road (during summer); No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: off Page Mill Road: Alexis Drive, Country Club Court, Bandera Drive and Laurel Glen DriveneiGHBoRHood aSSoCiation: Mark Nadim, president, 650-949-5672; [email protected], www.pahna.orgpaRK: Foothills Park, 3300 Page Mill Road
poSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Nixon Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: El Camino Real, Downtown Los Altos, California AvenueMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $2,625,000HoMeS Sold: 1
FACtsfiRe Station: No. 5, 600 Arastradero RoadliBRaRy: Mitchell Park branch, 4050 Middlefield Road (temporary location during construction)loCation: from Old Adobe Road to Manuela Avenue, off Arastradero RoadpaRK: Esther Clark Park, Old Trace RoadpoSt offiCe: Cambridge, 265 Cambridge Ave.pUBliC SCHoolS: Nixon Elementary School, Terman Middle School, Gunn High SchoolSHoppinG: El Camino Real, Downtown Los AltosMedian 2010 HoMe pRiCe: $2,275,000 ($1,487,350-$2,486,250)HoMeS Sold: 5
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